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FREDERICK HENRY FAYIELL 

IN TOKEN OF THEIR FRIENDSHIP AND OF THE AUTHOR’S ESTEEM 

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the Phantom City. 

A VOLCANIC ROMANCE. 


CHAPTER I. 

SENOR DON DOMINGO. 

On a certain very warm day in November, 186-, the Royal Mail 
steamer, Guadalquivir , whose surgeon I happened at the time 
to be, was lying off St. Peter’s Island (of the Virgin group). We 
had arrived a few hours previously from England, and most of 
our cargo, and the majority of our passengers, had already been 
transferred to the smaller steamers bound for the Gulf, the 
Windward and Leeward Islands, the Spanish Main, and else- 
where. 

A surgeon’s life in these latitudes is generally rather an idle 
one — except when Yellow Jack pays you a visit, and then the 
chances are that if you escape him you die of overwork and 
anxiety — and, having nothing particular to do, I was saunter- 
ing about the quarter-deck, smoking a fragrant Havana, and 
talking with the mail agent and some of the passengers who 
were going to Jamaica, the Guadilquivir's ultimate destination, 
when Herbert, the second officer, came aft, touched me on the 
shoulder, and drew me aside. 

“ You are wanted on board the Tobasco , Carlyon,” he said. 

“What for?” 

“To see a sick passenger,” 

“A sick passenger! Nothing serious, I hope-— not 

I said, with a look which he well understood. 

“No, not Yellow Jack this time, thank God. We had 
enough of that on the last homeward trip. Nothing very partic- 
ular, I fancy ; only Handsome Tommy would like you to see 
the man — a Spaniard of some consequence, I believe— before 
he weighs anchor.” 

“ I will go at once, then.” 

“Oh, there is no hurry. The Tobasco will not be ready to 
weigh for an hour or more. There is a boat alongside there — 
on the starboard quarter.” 


4 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


After finishing my cigar, and hearing the conclusion of the 
mail agent’s story — he was a capital story-teller, poor fellow — 
I stepped into my cabin, put my instrument case into my 
pocket, and, waving my hand to my friends on the quarter- 
deck, got down into the boat. I little thought that I had seen 
them for the last time, and that I should never again set foot 
on the stately Guadalquivir. 

Handsome Tommy, otherwise Thomas Tobias, was the To- 
based' s skipper, a fine-looking fellow, with a tawny beard, im- 
mense vitality, and great bodily strength. 

I found him on deck, under a white umbrella, watching the 
stowing of his cargo. 

“ Who and where is the sick man ?” I asked. 

“Either a Spaniard or a Greaser (Mexican), I am not sure 
which. Anyhow, they call him Senor Don Domingo. It was 
so confoundedly close in his bunk that I made the steward 
sling him a hammock near the after coaling port, where you 
will find him. I really believe it is cooler there than on deck. ” 

“That was very thoughtful of you, Tobias. You did quite 
right. Nothing like plenty of air for the sick, and the sound 
too, for that matter.” 

I was turning away to seek my patient, when the skipper 
observed, in the quiet way which was natural to him, that he 
thought there was likely to be a change of weather. 

“And quite time, too,” I said, mopping the perspiration 
from my face ; “ it is almost too hot to breathe. But I see no 
signs of a change. The sky is clear, and the sea as calm as a 
mill-pond.” 

“I think if you look hard towards the sou’- west there, you 
will see something” (handing me his glass). 

“I see nothing but a small cloud, about the size of a man’s 
hand,” I said, after looking for several minutes as hard as I 
could in the direction indicated. 

“It will be bigger before it is less,” answered Tommy, 
quietly. “The glass is beginning to fall, too. I wish I was 
out of this. If I don’t get away before dark I shall lie here 
until morning.” 

Here the first officer came to ask some question about the 
cargo, and I went below to look after my patient, hoping that 
Handsome Tommy would be right in his forecast ; for even a 
gale of wind would be preferable to that stifling intolerable 
heat — and a good deal more wholesome. 

As I knew Spanish pretty well, I spoke to Senor Don Do- 
mingo in his own language. He was a meagre, middle-aged 
man, with a saffron-colored, leathery skin, deep black eyes, a 
rather undershot lower lip, and heavy jaws. Albeit his tern- 


SEffOR DON DOMINGO. 


5 


perament seemed in no way strumous, there were signs about 
his neck which showed that he had some time or other suffered 
either from scurvy or blood-poisoning. His present complaint, 
however, was apparently low fever, of a form common in the 
West Indies, and easily cured if taken in time. After feel- 
ing his pulse and testing his temperature, I sent the steward 
for the captain’s medicine chest, gave Senor Domingo a cooling 
draught, and prepared him a mixture of which quinine was 
the principal ingredient. 

“You are treating me for fever, Senor Doctor,” he said, 
after he had taken the draught. 

“Certainly! It is fever you are suffering from — fever and 
the terrible heat. But this draught and the medicine I shall 
ask you to take later on will, I hope, set you to rights. I 
admit, though, that a good rattling sea-breeze would probably 
do you more good than either. I am sorry, both for your sake 
and my own, that I cannot command one.” 

“You are very kind. The fever is nothing; it will readily 
yield to your skill, I am sure. But I have something here ” 
(laying his left hand on the deltoid muscle of his right shoulder) 
— “I have something here that neither sea-breeze nor medicine 
can cure. It has troubled me two years, and I fear will trouble 
me as long as I live.” 

“What is it?” 

“An old wound.” 

“ An old wound ! Old wounds are sometimes rather intract- 
able, F know, but not always incurable. Would you mind 
letting me see it?” 

“ On the contrary, I should like you to see it very much,” 
and Senor Domingo, without more ado, bared his shoulder. 
He was terribly thin, poor fellow. 

“ An old wound ! ” I repeated. “ Why, it looks as if it were 
only a few days old.” 

“ It is two years since I got it, though.” 

I had never seen such a wound. It was not wide ; it did not 
seem to be deep, and it had evidently been produced by a sharp 
instrument. But the skin was as much discolored as if it had 
been made by a burnt stick. There were marks of old abscesses, 
too, and a new one was forming close to the cicatrix, which 
bore every appearance of having only recently healed. 

“ It breaks out after healing, I suppose ?” 

‘ ‘ Continually ; and those abscesses — I am hardly ever free 
from them. They make my life miserable, and sometimes re- 
duce me to a state of great weakness. I have been to doctor 
after doctor, but none of them seem able to do me any good. ” 

“ Very strange,” I said, continuing to examine the wound, 


6 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


which presented some very peculiar symptoms in addition to 
those I have mentioned. ‘ ‘ How did you get this hurt, may I 
ask ? ” 

“ From a poisoned arrow.” 

“ A poisoned arrow ! That accounts for it all ; I never saw a 
wound from a poisoned arrow before. And two years ago, you 
say ? ” I felt curious to know what my patient had been doing 
to get himself shot with such a missile. 

“Yes, I got it two years ago, and the wonder is that I sur- 
vived to teU the tale,” he answered, gloomily. “ But do you 
think you can cure me ? I fear it is almost past hoping for — 
still, you know, one does not like to abandon hope.” 

A difficult question to answer, my experience of the effects of 
poisoned arrows being decidedly limited ; and, judging from 
the appearance of the shoulder, I could not honestly say that 
there was much likelihood of a speedy cure. Under the con- 
tinuous heat of the tropics, the cellular tissue, becoming relaxed, 
loses much of its contractile power, and the defective lymphatic 
circulation thence resulting makes the healing of wounds and 
bruises sometimes very difficult. The nervous system, more- 
over, gets singularly irritable ; the slightest hurts are often very 
painful, with a tendency to tetanus, which, when once it sets 
in, is absolutely beyond control. In the present instance, more- 
over, there were signs of blood-poisoning, and my prognosis of 
the case was far from favorable. But it is never wise to dis- 
hearten a patient, and I did all I could to encourage the unfor- 
tunate Spaniard. 

“ Oh, you must not despair,” I said, cheerily. “Nil desper- 
cmdum, you know ; and I do not regard your case as at all 
hopeless. The doctors you have consulted are Spanish doctors, 
I suppose ? ” 

“ Spanish and Creole.” 

‘ ‘ The same thing. And I dare say they have given you a lot 
of physic ? ” 

“ Bucketsful ; I might almost say oceans. I have been 
doctoring for two years ; and to tell the truth, Senor Doctor, I 
am on my way now to St. Jago de Cuba to consult a celebrated 
physician there, who is said to be able to cure anything.” 

“ Ho doctor can do that, Senor Don Domingo. The man who 
says he can is a charlatan ; and, in my opinion, no amount of 
physic, no mere medical treatment, will do you good — rather 
harm, indeed. Yet, there is a way ” 

“ I thank Heaven and St. Dominic to hear you say so, Senor 
Doctor. Do me the favor to point out the way to health, and I 
will follow it. You English physicians are so surpassingly 
clever. The way, Sefior Doctor, the way ! ” 


SEffOR DON DOMINGO. 


7 


“ If you want to get better,” I answered, bowing in acknowl- 
edgment of the compliment ; “if you want to get better you 
must leave this part of the world at once for a more temperate 
climate. Go, if possible, to some Swiss or Tyrolese mountain 
resort, seven or eight thousand feet above sea-level, where the air 
is absolutely pure, and the rapid evaporation causes quick 
renewal of the tissues. Take, at the same time, a course of 
sulphur baths and hydropathic treatment, and in six months 
you will be another man.” 

“You think that would cure me ? ” 

“Ido.” 

“ By the powers, I’ll go then ! A thousand thanks for your 
your advice, Doctor Carlyon. You have given me new hope,” 
exclaimed the Senor Don, in a decided Irish accent. 

To say that my breath was taken away would be an inadequate 
description of my feelings. If a mermaid had jumped through 
the port ; if a shark had walked down the after-hatchway ; if 
Handsome Tommy had appeared before us and danced a horn- 
pipe, I could hardly have been more surprised. 

“ Have I actually been lavishing my best Castilian all this 
time on a fellow-countryman ? ” I asked, with some warmth ; 
for though I knew Spanish fairly, English was a good deal 
easier. 

‘ ‘ I don’t know about the fellow-countryman ; but I am Irish, 
if that is what you mean,” said Domingo, dryly. 

“Fellow-subject, then, if you like that better. But as my 
mother was Irish, I cannot consider myself more than half 
English.” 

‘ ‘ So much the better. Let us be friends, countrymen, and 
lovers then. For your advice sounds sensible, and if the treat- 
ment you recommend restores me to health, you will have 
rendered me a great service. I suppose you are surprised at 
finding that I am ” 

“ Hot a Senor Don ? Rather.” 

“You looked so. Would you like to know how I became a 
Senor Don, as you call it ? ” 

“And came by that poisoned-arrow wound on your shoulder? 
Very much indeed.” 

“Well, I will tell you. Light a cigar, sit down on that 
Southampton chair, and listen.” 


8 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


CHAPTER II. 

A STRANGE STORY. 

“I am not going to tell you the story of my life in extenso ,” 
said Senor Domingo, settling himself in his hammock, “it 
would take too much time, and you’ll be after going back to the 
Guadalquivir presently — only the main incidents. Well, as you 
know already, I was born an Irishman, and my people, who, I 
must tell you, did not occupy a very exalted position in the 
world, albeit they were in tolerably easy circumstances, destined 
me, from an early age, for the priesthood. Domingo is merely 
the Hispaniolized version of my family name, Dominick. My 
name in religion was Father Polycarp. After getting my 
schooling, and spending two or three years at college, I went to 
Spain, and completed my clerical education at Salamanca. It 
w r as my own wish. I wanted to travel, and I wanted, above 
all, to see Spain, a country which had always possessed a great 
attraction for me — I think through reading ‘ Don Quixote ’ and 
‘Gil Bias.’ 

“Some time after being ordained, I found favor with the 
archbishop, and was appointed to a very good post in the 
cathedral. But I was never content to remain long in the same 
place, and when a chance was offered me of going to Costa Rica, 
I embraced it eagerly. I was always after exploring foreign 
countries ; and if I had not gone into the Church, I dare say I 
might have become a great traveler. ” 

“We seem to have similar tastes,” I observed ; “ I am rather 
a rolling stone myself, and like nothing so well as knocking 
about the world and seeing out-of-the-way places. That was 
my principal reason for becoming a surgeon. There are sick 
people everywhere, and a doctor, like a sailor, can travel and 
get his living at the same time, and he is so far superior to a 
sailor, that he can get along either afloat or ashore. I have 
done a pretty big mileage already. Besides several voyages 
across the North and South Atlantic, I have gone with a ship- 
load of emigrants from London to New Zealand, and a cargo of 
coolies from Calcutta to Guiana. But I am interrupting you. 
Pray continue.” 

“ You are a fortunate man. I wish I had gone in for medi- 
cine, for to tell the truth — but I am anticipating. 

“Well, I went to Costa Rica, and after staying a while there, 
got myself transferred to Merida, in Yucatan. I liked Merida 
much. True, it is very hot ; yet it suffers neither from yellow 


A STRANGE STORY. 


9 


fever, hurricanes, nor earthquakes, which, for a Central Ameri- 
can city, is something wonderful. It is a quaint place, too, 
contains buildings actually 300 years old, and the people are 
interesting — many of them really charming — and my position 
brought me in contact with some of the best people in the state. 
But what interested me most were the ruined cities of the 
wilderness. Within a hundred miles of Merida are the mag- 
nificent ruins of Mayapan — Ake, Kabah, Laban, and many 
more ; above all Uxmal, which is only sixty miles from Merida. 
I went there many times, and gazed with wonder, almost awe, 
on those superb relics of a lost civilization, and was continually 
asking myself and inquiring of others, whence had come and 
whither gone the mysterious people by whom it was created. 
Were they Toltecs, or Aztecs? 

“Nobody could tell me, and the books I consulted did not 
throw much light on the subject. But there was a legend in 
which, though the educated did not place much faith, the Mayan 
people (Indians of the locality) firmly believed. The legend 
runs, that in an unexplored part of the country — the vast region 
lying between Chiapas, Tobasco, Yucatan, and Guatemala, a 
region never trod by the white man’s foot — there is a great 
aboriginal city, with white walls, grand temples, and gorgeous 
buildings, in the same style of architecture as the ruins of Ux- 
mal and Palenque, and inhabited by the same race as that 
which once held sway over the greater part of Central America, 
centuries before Columbus discovered the Western Continent. 
Several attempts were said to have been made to reach this 
hidden city, but all had failed. According to one account three 
young men actually got there, but, falling into the hands of the 
Indians, one was sacrificed on the high altar of the Temple of 
the Sun, and the other two were put to death with every re- 
finement of cruelty. 

“ This story, however, must needs be purely apocryphal. For, 
if all three were killed, who was there left to tell the tale ? The 
fact, I suppose, is, that three men once started on some such ex- 
pedition, and never came back. Still another account had it that 
the Phantom City, as the Indians call it, had been seen, and not 
very long before, by the cura of a place in the South, from the 
top of a high mountain, that he had actually beheld its great 
walls, and mighty temples, glistening like silver in the sun, and 
reflected in the shining waters of the vast lake by which it is 
surrounded. Neither did I much believe this story, but I felt 
very curious to see that cura” 

“But why,” I asked, “should there be any difficulty in test- 
ing the truth of this legend and these stories ? Guatemala and 
Yucatan are not extensive countries. They are not like Africa 


10 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


and Australia, and I never heard of there being any impassable 
deserts in Central America.” 

“ True, and Central America is a long way from being as big 
as Central Australia. But you forget that a tropical forest may 
be even more impassable than a waterless desert, and ranges of 
mountains, like those among which the mighty Usamacinta 
gathers its waters, are not quite as easily crossed as the Alps 
or the Pyrenees. But the merely physical difficulties might be 
overcome ; the great trouble is that all this unexplored region 
is beset by Lacandones, Manches, and other tribes of fierce and 
unsubdued Indians, whom, in order to reach the Phantom 
Island and City, you must either evade or subdue. I do not 
say that it is impossible to evade them, but nobody has done it 
yet ; while, as for subduing, it is enough to say that the Spanish 
conquistadores found it expedient to let them alone. It is the 
other way about, indeed. The Indians who were conquered in 
times past are fast regaining their savage independence. Even 
Merida, with its 50,000 inhabitants, is in mortal terror of them. 
In 1846 the Indians swept a great part of Yucatan with fire and 
sword. Valladolid and Tekax were abandoned, and thousands 
of square miles of territory, and hundreds of towns and villages, 
once occupied by a Creole population, mostly of Spanish blood, 
have reverted to their original owners. 

“However, to resume my story. While I was pondering 
these things, making occasional visits to ruined cities, and form- 
ing rather aimless plans for more distant excursions, I heard of 
a project for establishing a new mission in the Verapaz country, 
and offered to take charge of it. My offer was accepted. Most 
of my friends thought me a great fool for exchanging the 
pleasures of Merida for the hard life of a missionary priest in a 
region remote from civilization, inhabited, as they said, only by 
Indians, mosquitoes, and alligators. But it was exactly the 
place I wanted to go to — between Cozabon and Coban, and on 
the borders of the country where was to be found, if anywhere, 
the aboriginal city and the Phantom Island of the legend. So 
I went, and stayed there a pretty long time. I cannot say I 
liked it very much, however. True, my flock, consisting of 
tame Indians and half-breeds, and a few Creoles, were good and 
kind, and treated me with almost too much reverence and re- 
spect. But the dullness of the place was terrible, the climate 
detestable, and the insects were as trying as all the plagues of 
Egypt put together ; for Puebla lies low down in the tierra 
caliente. Pride, and other considerations, however, forbade me 
to go back, and want of means and the impossibility of leaving my 
charge for long together, prevented me from attempting to carry 
out my great object— the discovery of the Phantom City. Yet 


A STRANGE STORY. 


11 


I made several excursions and picked up some useful informa- 
tion, and by a strange chance I met the cur a who was said to 
have seen it from the top of a high mountain south of the Usa- 
macinta. It turned out, however, that it was not himself that 
had seen it, but a Chichi Indian whom he had known. He said - 
the man was thoroughly trustworthy, and quite believed his 
story. It was that the Indian had once seen the city a long way 
off , and his account so far confirmed the legend that he declared 
the walls were white, and some of the buildings covered 
with plates of silver and gold. When asked why he did not 
enter the Phantom Country (the only name we had for it), he 
said that its inhabitants, the Children of Light, as they call 
themselves, are in alliance with certain of the Lacandones and 
Manches, who remorselessly put to death all strangers who 
approach their territory, and that he himself could not have 
gone a step farther without the certainty of falling into their 
hands. As it was, he only escaped them by stealth, and got 
back with great difficulty. Another thing he said was, that the 
Children of Light are quite a different race of men from the 
wild tribes that haunt the forests and the mountains — which is 
very likely, I should say. 

“ I thought that, on the whole, this account might be true — 
perhaps because I wanted it to be. The trouble was that I could 
get no precise information, either as to the city or the moun- 
tain from which it had been seen. South of the Usamacinta 
might mean almost anywhere north of the eighteenth degree of 
south latitude, for the great river rises nobody knows where, 
and falls into the Gulf of Mexico at the Laguna de los Terminos. 
But the point was of less importance than it might have been, 
as at that time I saw no chance of my being able to engage in 
an enterprise of so much pith and moment as a search for the 
mysterious city. A little later, however, circumstances became 
more propitious. An old friend at Merida, a Yucatanero, who 
had made money in the United States of the North, left me a 
legacy w T hich, though perhaps small when judged by European 
ideas, was for me a small fortune. So I gave up the priesthood 
— for which, to tell the truth, I had never any real vocation — 
and resolved to make at least one attempt to penetrate to the 
unexplored regions of Yerapaz. The first thing was to fix on a 
starting point, which, after mature consideration, I decided 
should be a little to the westward of Santa Rosa ; the next, to 
engage and organize a force of friendly Indians who would act 
both as escort, carriers, and guides : for I was about to adven- 
ture into a country where beasts of burden could not travel, 
w T here I was not sure of finding food, and where I might at any 
moment be attacked by the savage Lacandones, or the still more 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


12 

savage Manches. We should, therefore, have to carry our 
supplies on our backs and our lives in our hands. Carriage, 
however, presented no difficulty ; the Indians of Central America 
being accustomed to transport heavy burdens great distances. 
About their stanchness, however, I was far from confident ; 
Christianized natives are terribly afraid of their wild kinsfolk ; 
and I did not feel at all sure that my men would not desert me 
when I most needed their help, the more especially as, being 
compelled by the custom of the country to pay them beforehand, 
I could have no security for their good behavior. 

‘ ‘ But all went well for a while. Certainly, there was no 
track, and, like ships at sea, we had to steer by compass ; 
though, unlike ships, we could not go straight, and made very 
slow progress. We had to make so many detours, sometimes 
to avoid a swamp, sometimes to find a pass over a mountain, 
or a ford over a river, that, after a fortnight’s hard work, we 
were not more than forty miles from our starting point, as the 
crow flies, though I suppose we had really traveled three times 
that distance. 

‘ ‘ My men were beginning to grumble — they forgot the pay, 
and thought only of the hard work — when, after a more than 
usually toilsome march, all against the collar, we reached an 
open, park-like country, which, judging from the extensive 
view it commanded, must be a high table-land ; but as I had, 
unfortunately, brought no barometer, I could not tell how 
high. Below us was a vast savanna, or valley, bounded by 
lofty white-crested mountains. Whether the whiteness de- 
noted snow, or merely limestone or other light-colored rocks, 
it was impossible, at that distance, to determine. I fancied, 
too, that I could make out a city, or the ruins of one. My 
men — who saw better with the naked eye than I did with my 
glass — declared that they could distinguish white walls and 
pyramids, which shone like gold. On the other hand, it did 
not answer to the description of the cura's Chiche ! There 
was no sign of water. The place we saw, or thought we saw, 
could not, therefore, be on an island. But the Chiche might 
be mistaken, or — another supposition — there might be a second 
hidden city, hitherto unheard of, unknown even to tradition. 
Be that as it might, the idea that I was on the point of making 
a great find delighted and excited me beyond measure. Greatly 
to my surprise, however, my men seemed much discouraged — 
alarmed, even ; and when I inquired the reason, said that we 
must now be in the very heart of the Choles country, at the 
best a dangerous enough position. If we were really within 
sight of the Phantom City, the danger was greater still — 
nobody had ever succeeded in reaching it — and it was as much 


A STRANGE STORY. 


13 


as our lives were worth to go another step farther. They 
wanted to go back, in fact. This put me in a rage. I re- 
proached the men for their faithlessness, reminded them of 
their engagements, and said that nothing should turn me from 
my purpose — that I should go on at all hazards. 

“As for the Lacandones, and other savage tribes, I had 
begun to doubt their existence. We had not, so far, seen a 
single human being, or sign of any, except a wretched Tree 
Indian, two or three days before, who disappeared the moment 
he set eyes on us. 

“ My men — silenced, if not convinced — lighted a fire, and set 
about preparing our evening meal. After it was eaten, and we 
had smoked the pipe of peace, we lay down and disposed our- 
selves for sleep. I chose a place a little distance from the fire, 
near the trunk of a gigantic tree ; for my men, besides being 
loud snorers, were too high-smelling to make them desirable 
bedfellows. 

“ I cannot tell how long I slept, but when I awoke the em- 
bers of the fire were still faintly glowing, and the tree-tops 
were bathed in the soft light of a radiant moon. I raised 
myself on my elbow, and looked round. Was I dreaming? I 
rubbed my eyes, and looked again. 

‘ ‘ It was no illusion : my men were gone, taking everything 
with them, and I was left alone in that wilderness, to get back 
as I might, for going forward was now out of the question. 
My heart sank within me, for how could I get back alone ? and 
I was about to spring to my feet and try to find out which way 
the wretches had gone, when I became conscious of shadowy 
forms moving among the trees on the opposite side of the 
glade. My first thought was that these w~ere my own people, 
but a second look showed me that I was mistaken. My men 
numbered only a dozen, but yonder were two or three score, 
big fellows wearing plumed head-dresses, cloaks of skin, and 
armed with spears and bows. 

“ I am not ashamed to confess, Senor Doctor, being a man 
of peace, that the sight utterly overcame me. I remembered 
all I had heard of the horrible tortures these Indians of the 
wilds inflict on their prisoners. I was petrified with fear. 
For two or three minutes I hardly dared to breathe, and could 
not move a limb. The horrors of that moment, words cannot 
tell. And then my senses gradually returned, and I dragged 
myself away — crawled on my belly like a snake — in the hope 
that I might in that way escape unobserved. But I had not 
gone far when a yell that seemed to freeze my blood in my 
veins told me that I was seen. Bounding to my feet, I ran as 
I had never run before — ran for dear life, the fiends in full 


14 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


cry after me. Knowing that I had no chance of outracing 
them, I made for a barranca — a deep and wide ravine, of a 
sort frequent in the country— which I had noticed as we 
climbed up the hill. 

“As I ran I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder; but the 
arrow, hurriedly shot, did not penetrate deeply into the flesh ; 
if it had done, I should not be here to tell the tale. I shook 
it off, and raced onward for the barranca. I could not look 
back, but I knew my pursuers were close after me ; and when 
I reached the ravine I jumped, or rather dropped, slap into 
it. Better break my neck, I thought, than be roasted alive 
by those savages. 

“ I have no idea how far I fell, but after crawling through a 
lot of bushes, which cut my flesh, and tore my clothes to rags, 
I brought to, stunned and breathless, on a tree, or the branch 
of one. I could hear the savages shouting and exclaiming in 
the forest above. I knew very well, though, that they would 
not follow me, and as the barranca , besides being of consider- 
able depth, was probably many miles in length, I did not think 
they were likely to outflank me. In all probability, moreover, 
they would imagine I was killed outright, and in that belief 
give all their attention to the finding of my fugitive convoy. 
And so it turned out ; at any rate, I saw no more of them. 

‘ ‘ When daylight came, though precious little of it reached 
me, I surveyed my position as well as I could. It was not par- 
ticularly encouraging. I sat in the branches of a tree that 
grew almost at right angles from the side of the barranca, 
neither the top nor the bottom of which was visible. I could 
not stay where I was, that was quite clear, and equally clear 
that I could not go up. There was, consequently, nothing for 
it but to go down ; and down I went, slipping from one bush 
to another, sometimes falling a few feet, sometimes holding on 
to a tree, until I reached terra firma, which proved to be the 
bed of a stream — in the rainy season, no doubt, a foaming tor- 
rent — but just then, save for a pool here and there, quite dry. 
I had no doubt about the direction I should take — it could 
only be down hill — and I felt sure that if I went on I should 
come out in the neighborhood of some river or brook. 

“ It took me more than twenty-four hours to get out of that 
ravine, and all the time I did not once taste food. If it had 
not been for the pools I just spoke about, I think I must have 
died. I will not trouble you with all the details of that ter- 
rible journey, nor dwell on the intense satisfaction I experi- 
enced when at last I emerged into the light of day ; how I 
killed a monkey with a stick and ate him raw, how I gorged 
mysen with wild bananas, and, following the bendings of a 


GONE. 


15 


tiny river, fell in with a Christianized Indian, who conducted 
me to Santa Rosa. 

“ I told you that when we reached the glade where my Indi- 
ans deserted me, I thought we were about forty miles from our 
starting point, in a straight line. I saw reason afterwards to 
modify that opinion. By the barranca I don’t think we were 
above a score — in fact, we had gone no distance worth men- 
tioning — and although I could not recommend anybody to take 
that way, it is unquestionably the nearest. And I am sure I 
shall not try it again, nor any other.” 

“You have no idea, then, of making another attempt to find 
the Phantom City, even if you recover your health ? ” 

“ No, I have not, Senor Doctor. One adventure of that sort 
is quite enough for a man of my age. Another like it would 
kill me outright. I have never been well since. I had a ter- 
rible attack of dysentery at Santa Rosa, and that and the 
wound seemed to have completely ruined my constitution. 
But I will try your Swiss prescription, and see what that will 
do for me. Ah ! what’s that ? ” 

‘ ‘ That ” was a loud shouting and heavy trampling overhead, 
and at the same time the air darkened and the intense heat 
gave place to a refreshing coolness. Handsome Tommy’s fore- 
bodings about the weather were coming true. 

“ I will go on deck and see what is the matter,” I said, “but 
first take this draught, and be quiet. You have excited your- 
self too much.” 


CHAPTER III. ^ 

GONE. 

Captain Tobias was on the quarter-deck ; his bronzed and 
manly features, though fixed and stern, bespoke neither anx- 
iety nor apprehension, and he gave his orders with as much 
coolness and self-possession as if he were preparing for a 
summer day’s journey, instead of a strife with the elements, 
which might end in the destruction of his ship and the loss of 
all our lives. The men were making all snug — furling the 
sails, doubly securing the boats, battening down the hatches, 
and removing from the deck every object that could be re- 
moved. 

“ It’s coming,” said the skipper, when he saw me — “ a regu- 
lar buster.” 

“ It’s likely to be a fresh gale, then ? ” 

“A gale ! I wish it was. No, my lad, it’s a cyclone we are 


16 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


in for, and unless I am mistaken, a cyclone that we shall all of 
us remember as long as we live — if we live through it. The 
barometer has been going down with a run, and, look there ! ” 
(pointing seaward). 

The cloud, only an hour before no bigger than a man’s hand, 
was now intensely black, and covered the entire horizon like a 
pall. It grew more threatening every moment, and seemed as 
if it were hastening to meet and devour the now fast-redden- 
ing sun. The wind was rising, too, and Tobias had to shout 
his orders through his speaking-trumpet. 

“I cannot send you onboard the Guadalquivir ,” he said; 
“you will have to be my guest to-night. But you are quite as 
safe here as on the big ’un — safer perhaps.” 

“ Thanks, very much,” I answered. “ I will be your guest 
with pleasure, Captain Tobias. It will be easy to join the 
Guadalquivir in the morning.” 

“ I hope so ; but whether it will or not remains to be seen. 
By Jove ! what is Shenstone up to? Manning the capstan ! 
Getting up steam ! He is surely not going to weigh ? He is, as 
sure as I’m a sinner. And see there ! They are holding up a 
board with something chalked on it. What can it be, I won- 
der?” 

With that, Handsome Tommy put his glass to his eye and 
read aloud : “I am going to another anchorage.” 

“ Going to another anchorage ! Well, I don’t think you are 
wise, Shenstone. I shall stay where I am. I don’t know of 
any better holding ground hereabouts than this.” 

And then the Guadalquivir steamed ahead, and took up 
another berth, but not so far off that we could not easily dis- 
tinguish her dark hull, tapering masts, and big red funnels, 
even in the fast-waning light. For the clouds were now over- 
spreading the face of the sun, which looked as if it were shining 
through a hole, and threw into the water a solid shaft of crim- - 
son fire that cast a lurid glare on the black vault above. 

A few minutes after the Guadilquivir had left her moorings, 
another steamer, under double-reefed topsails, emerged from 
the darkness, and crossed this streak of light, which brought 
every spar of her, and almost every rope, into full relief. Her 
funnels were sending out great volumes of smoke, and she was 
evidently steaming full speed. 

“ It is the Ganges ,” said Tobias, taking a long look through 
his glass ; “the Colon boat, I suppose. Thompson, finding 
that he was likely to be in the thick of the cyclone, thought it 
better to run back. Quite right, too. He is not coming here, 
though ; making for St. Thomas’s. I hope he may get there in 
time.” 


GONE. 


17 


Handsome Tommy now gave orders to let go the sheet anchor, 
and pay out more cable. 

“We must make fast if we don’t want to be driven ashore,” 
he said, smiling. “ You are getting steam up, I suppose, Mr. 
Malcolm ? ” (to the chief engineer, who stood by). 

“It is up now, Captain Tobias,” answered the Scot, imper- 
turbably. “ Whenever you give the word we are ready.” 

“ Why are you getting steam up ? ” I asked in some surprise. 
“ I thought you were going to stay here.” 

“ So we are — if we can. But how if the cables part, or the 
anchors drag ? What would become of us then ? Nobody who 
has not been in a cyclone can form an idea of what wind can do 
when it travels at the rate of a hundred miles an hour, with a 
pressure of fifty pounds to the square foot. I think I can give 
you an idea, though.” 

With that Handsome Tommy whipped into his cabin. The 
next minute he reappeared with a bit of wood in his hand. It 
was part of a shutter, such as is commonly used in the West 
Indies, made of inch stuff, through which had been forced a 
square piece of equally thick roofing tile, and it still stuck 
there hard and fast. 

“That was done in the last cyclone at St. Thomas’s,” said 
the skipper. “I keep it as a curiosity. If that bit of tile 
had struck a man it would have smashed his skull, or buried 
itself in his body. And many a poor fellow will meet his 
death in that way before to-morrow morning, I fear. I 
think one is almost as safe at sea as ashore in a cyclone, 
after all. ” 

This was not very reassuring. The captain evidently thought 
we were in great danger ; and I could not disguise from myself 
that I might not live to see the light of another day, for, if the 
worst befell, escape would be out of the question. No man 
could swim, no boat live, in such a storm as that which was so 
nearly upon us. In spite of what Tobias had said, I began to 
regret having come aboard the Tobasco. A big ship always 
gives a greater sense of safety, and generally is safer than a 
little one. Moreover, the Guadalquivir was brand-new and 
built of iron ; the Tobasco , timber-built and old. But there was 
no help for it now ; and, being fortunately blessed with a san- 
guine temperament, I hoped for the best, and went below to 
impart the news to my patient, which, in consideration for his 
weak state, I meant to do in such a way as to alarm him as 
little as might be. 

“ The wind is freshening, and it is likely to blow hard before 
morning,” I said. 

“But we are surely not going to sail!” exclaimed Senor 

2 


18 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


Domingo, in great alarm. “ I would much rather go ashore. 
Storms in these latitudes are dangerous.” 

When I told him that we were not going to move until the 
weather mended, he gave a sigh of relief. 

“ I detest the sea,” he said, “and, I confess it frankly, I am 
mortally afraid of a storm.” 

I began to think that Father Polycarp was not exactly the 
most courageous of men ; and there was something in his man- 
ner which made me suspect that, instead of his tame Indians 
having deserted him, he might possibly have deserted them. 
But perhaps I did him an injustice ; he was not at all a bad 
fellow. 

Then we talked again about the Phantom City, his account of 
which had greatly excited my curiosity. He did not seem to 
have the slightest doubt of its existence. 

“ If I were as young and strong as you are,” he said, “I 
would have another try to find it. But I should not start from 
the same place.” 

“ Where from, then ? ” 

“ I would either start from Flores, on the Laguna de Peten, 
and cross the Verapaz mountains into the valley of the Usama- 
cinta, or follow the course of the Rio de la Passion, until it 
strikes the big river, and then try back. The Phantom City is 
most probably situated on or near one of the affluents of the 
Usamacinta, the source of which, as I told you, has never been 
discovered. ” 

“You don’t think, then, that you saw it that time?” 

‘ ‘ Frankly, I don’t. A city perhaps, but not the city, and if 
inhabited, only by Lacandones, Manches, and such-like ruf- 
fians. The Children of Light, if the stories we have heard be 
only partially true, are of another race and highly civilized.” 

“So you said. Do you know, I almost feel as if I should 
like to have a look for it myself ! ” 

“Do you, really ? If I felt sure you would But it is a 

big undertaking, and will cost some money. You might have 
to make several attempts before you succeeded ; and I was 

about to say Holy Virgin protect us ! We are going to 

the bottom ; the ship is over on her side.” 

Senor Domingo’s alarm was premature. The Tobasco had 
simply made a roll, and swung round rather violently, as if 
struck by a big sea or a sudden squall. The next moment she 
was herself again. All the same, the sensation was not a 
pleasant one, and my patient narrowly missed being thrown 
out of his hammock. So, after getting him into his bunk, 
which I thought the best place for him under the circumstances, 
I went once more on deck to see how the weather was shaping. 


GONE. 


19 


It had become worse rapidly during the last half-hour. Dark 
clouds, streaked with red, completely veiled the sun ; the sea 
looked black and ugly, and there was a heavy swell on. Al- 
though we were under the lee of the land, the wind shrieked 
viciously among the shrouds, and the limit of the horizon was 
marked by a line of white foam. 

“ Every man secure himself,” sang out Handsome Tommy, in 
a voice that was heard from stem to stern. 

And then he lashed himself to the capstan. I did the same. 
The line of foam came nearer ; and as it approached I saw that 
it was a veritable wall of seething water, which towered high 
above the Tobasco's bulwarks. It fell on the deck with a shock 
that made the old ship reel like a drunken man, sweeping 
everything before it that was not part and parcel of the solid 
mass. The boats were torn away as if they had been fastened 
with pack-threads ; and an unfortunate sailor, who had neglected 
the captain’s warning, went with them ; his despairing cry, as he 
was dashed into the sea, ringing high above the roar of the storm. 

The wind rose every minute, and went on rising for hours. 
The strain on the cables was terrific, and towards midnight the 
best bower parted with a report like the firing of a big gun. 
This contingency Tobias had foreseen, and the next moment 
the engines were going full speed, to ease the strain on our re- 
maining cable ; and so terrible was the force of the wind that 
this was all they could do. If the sheet anchor had dragged, 
or the second cable parted, nothing could have saved us. To- 
bias kept the deck ; the first officer watched the cable (on which 
a rope had been bent to ease the strain) ; and Malcolm was at 
his post in the engine-room. When the wind lulled speed was 
reduced ; when it rose full sleam was again put on. Every 
man on board knew that our lives depended on the stanchness 
of a chain and the strength of the engines. The breaking of a 
link or the starting of a bolt would have sept us all in a few 
brief minutes to eternity. 

And so passed the night — a night of intense anxiety and 
agonizing suspense. I learnt, then, for the first time, how im- 
potent is man in presence of the unchained forces of Nature, 
what waifs in God’s world we are, and how little we can do to 
shape the destinies which sometimes, in our vanity, we think 
we can control. 

Towards morning the storm began to abate ; the wind went 
down faster than it had risen ; the sun rose in an azure sky, 
grandly serene, and utterly heedless of the havoc and misery 
which the night had wrought. 

“What has become of the Guadalquivir f ” I asked Tobias, 
looking in the direction where we had last seen her, 


20 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


Tobias looked, too. Then he swept the horizon with his 
glass. 

“ The Guadalquivir is gone,” he said, solemnly. 

“ Gone ! You surely don’t mean ” 

The honest fellow bowed his head. His eyes were brimming 
with tears. Like myself, he had many dear friends on board 
the Guadalquivir. 

“ But are you sure? ” I gasped. “ May she not have gone 
somewhere else — to St. Thomas’s, for instance ? ” 

For answer Tobias handed me his glass. 

I looked, and saw, sticking out of the water, something like 
a long pole, at the end of which streamed a red pennant. 

‘ ‘ The Guadalquivir's topmast ? ” 

The skipper nodded. 

‘ ‘ And the people on board of her ? Don’t you think it pos- 
sible some of them may be saved ? ” 

“ Hot one. All are gone. Think what a night it was.” 

“ And if you had not sent for me to see Senor Domingo, I 
should be gone too,” I said, grasping Tommy’s hand. 

“Yes, rather a narrow squeak — a fortunate accident, some 
would say. But I don’t believe in accidents, and don’t you, 
Dr. Carlyon. Thank God for it ! It is He who saved, not your 
life only, but all our lives, last night. Think of it ! That fine 
ship, new, and on her first voyage, gone to the bottom, while 
the old Tobasco has lived through it all ; and, except for the 
loss of her boats and a few spars, is very little the worse. It is 
true what the Old Book says — ‘ The race is not always to the 
swift, nor the battle to the strong.’ ” 

Captain Tobias must have been deeply moved to make so 
long a speech, for he was a man of few words. But in what he 
said, and the events of the past night, there was food for seri- 
ous thought ; and as I leaned, sad and pensive, over the taff- 
rail, I mused long and deeply on the strange dispensation which, 
within a few hours, had twice saved my life, and brought me 
in contact with this Spanish priest — I forgot, for the moment, 
he was an Irishman. All this pointed to something. Could it 
be that I was the destined discoverer of the hidden city and the 
mysterious people of which he had told me, and which had al- 
ready so greatly excited my curiosity ? 


DOMINICK’S PROPOSAL. 


21 


CHAPTER IY. 

DOMINICK’S PROPOSAL. 

Though I had been often on deck during the night, I spent 
the greater part of the time with my patient, who suffered much 
both from sea-sickness and fear. If he had been in better 
health he would probably have shown greater courage ; but few 
men, whether they are well or ill, can go through such an ex- 
perience as that which had just befallen us without experienc- 
ing some unpleasant sensations. 

Morning, which brought relief for all, unfortunately brought 
an aggravation of the feverish symptoms from which Senor 
Domingo had been suffering the day before, and I began to fear 
that I should have some difficulty in pulling him through. He 
had no reserve of strength ; and a malady that in ordinary cir- 
cumstances would have been easily enough cured, might prove 
too much for his enfeebled constitution. But the cyclone, which 
wrought so much evil, did also some good. By purifying and 
cooling the air, it brought about a notable diminution in the 
yellow fever and cholera which had been ravaging several of 
the West India Islands, and were especially virulent at St. 
Thomas’s. It is quite possible, indeed, that the storm saved 
more lives than it destroyed ; and, though I would not venture 
to say that it saved my patient, I am sure that, had the intense 
heat continued, it would have gone very hard with him. An- 
other circumstance that told in his favor was my involuntary 
sojourn on board the Tobasco ; and, my own ship being lost, I 
was compelled to stay there altogether. Mr. Dominick, as he 
now desired to be called, thus became my sole patient ; and, as 
everybody knows, or ought to know, the more attention a doc- 
tor can give to a sick man the greater are his chances of re- 
covery. 

The cyclone and its consequences naturally threw the sailing 
arrangements of the Royal Mail Company’s fleet a good deal 
out of gear. The good ship Guadalquivir , which should have 
carried the mails to England, was lying fathoms deep in Carib- 
bean waters ; and the Ganges, a fine steamer that might have 
taken her place, had received so much damage in the cyclone 
that she required extensive repairs, and would not be in a con- 
dition to sail for weeks. Under these circumstances, the com- 
pany’s agent at St. Thomas’s decided to send the Tobasco to 
England with the remaining mails and the few passengers who 
had survived the tempest. True, she was rather old, but she 


22 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


was stanch, and her captain had proved himself a bold and 
skillful seaman, and well deserved promotion. So we had to 
run across to St. Thomas’s, discharge one cargo and take in an- 
other, get fresh boats and more stores, replenish our water- 
casks and fill up our coal-bunkers, operations which took a 
good deal of time ; and only on the third day after he got sail- 
ing orders was Tobias able to weigh anchor and shape his course 
for Southampton. 

Our passengers numbered only some half a dozen, one of 
whom was Dominick. He had been rather disposed to continue 
his journey to Cuba ; but when I assured him that his life de- 
pended on his getting away from the tropics forthwith, he re- 
solved to take my advice and passage with the Tobasco. 

“ I have become so much accustomed to this part of the 
world, and like it so well, that I leave it with great reluctance,” 
he said. “ But all that a man hath will he give for his life, and 
really, you know, I don't want to die any sooner than I can 
help. So we will sail together to England, amigo mio. Providence 
evidently means us to be friends. It has thrown us together in 
a marvelous way. My illness was the means of saving your life, 
and I think I may say that your skill has saved mine.” 

This was on the day we sailed. A few days later the fever 
had entirely left him, and by the time we sighted the Lizard he 
was convalescent. He sat and walked all day long on the deck, 
and rapidly regained his strength. Returning health, more- 
over, wrought a great change in his temper and manner. From 
being gloomy, morose, and irritable (with an occasional lucid 
interval), he became bright, cheerful, and genial. His grati- 
tude to me was unbounded, and at times somewhat effusive, for 
he had the traditional Celtic temperament, and his language 
was often characterized by that strain of high-flown exaggera- 
tion peculiar to the people among whom he had spent the 
greater part of his life. In vain I urged the absurdity of being 
grateful to a medical man. 

“ It is my duty to cure my patients if I can,” I said, “just 
as it is a shipmaster’s duty to save his ship if he can. You 
might as well be grateful to Tobias for not making a false 
reckoning, and running the Tobasco on a sunken rock, or to an 
engine-driver for not running you off the line.” 

“ Nonsense ! Your conduct has not been that of an ordinary 
doctor, and you know it. You have not only treated me skill- 
fully, you have nursed me like a brother, and watched over me 
day and night— day and night. You have saved my life, and 
I insist on being grateful. My own brother, or my own son — 
if it were possible for a priest to have a son — could not have 
shown greater kindness and devotion.” 


DOMINICK’S PROPOSAL. 


23 


“ Because I had nothing else to do. You are my sole patient, 
remember.” 

“ Santissima Maria ! How cold and unresponsive you English 
are ! Yet if you are cold and proud, you are neither greedy nor 
vain. A French or a Spanish doctor would have taken all the 
praise he could get, and a thumping fee besides. But what am 
I saying ? If I had been attended by a Spanish doctor it is 
food for fish I should be this moment. But never mind ; you 
have saved my life, and that is enough for me. And I am 
going to ask you to add to the obligation.” 

“Iam sure I shall only be too glad — anything in my power— 
how, might I ask ? ” 

“ By completing the undertaking in which I failed — the dis- 
covery of the Phantom City. You are just the man for it — 
young, robust, and stalwart, and, as I could tell by the look of 
you — even if you had not proved it that night of the cyclone — 
as bold as a lion. You know Spanish, too, which counts for a 
good deal, and your surgical skill and scientific knowledge will 
avail you much. Yes, you are just the man. You have all 
the qualifications. If anybody can find the Phantoms you can, 
Senor Doctor.” 

“ You are pleased to flatter me, Mr. Dominick. But, I con- 
fess it, I should like to attempt this enterprise. The legend 
you speak of and your descriptions of the country have roused 
my curiosity. I had no idea there was so much of Central 
America still unexplored and inhabited only by tribes of un- 
conquered and mysterious Indians. Yes, I should like to find 
the Phantom City, and if I did not find that, I should be sure 
to find much that is well worth seeing. All the same, I don’t 
quite see my way.” 

“See your way! Well, I don’t think you are likely to do 
that, unless you get yourself fitted with a pair of wings,” 
laughed Dominick. “You will have to feel your way, and 
leave a good deal to Providence. Ways are few, and bad at 
that, in Central America, amigo mio. Why, the Camino real — 
the royal road — is only like a big furrow through a plowed 
field ! ” 

“ I do not mean seeing my way in that sense, reverend sir 
(Dominick winced; he did not like to be reminded of his sacred 
calling). To speak frankly, it is with me a question of money. 
My father left me only a small income — about a hundred a 
year. The pay of a ship’s surgeon is no great shakes, and I 
fear I am not so careful as I should be. Anyhow, I have so 
little beforehand, that I could not possibly afford to spend 
several months, perhaps years, traveling in Central America.” 

“I am delighted to hear you say so, my dear sir ; I feared 


24 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


you might be a rich man. Yes, I am delighted beyond meas- 
ure.” 

“Delighted that I am a poor man, Mr. Dominick. But 
why ? ” I exclaimed, in some surprise, for his delight was evi- 
dently quite sincere. 

“ Because it gives me an opportunity of proving the reality 
of my gratitude, and promoting a good cause at the same time. 

I told you I had inherited a trifle of money, did not I ? ” 

“From a Yucatanero, who had made a pile in the United 
States of the North.” 

“Exactly. He called me his dear friend and spiritual 
father, the decent man, and left me a matter of twenty thou- 
sand pounds. ” 

“ Twenty thousand pounds! And you call that a trifle of 
money. I call it a fine fortune.” 

“ I don’t like to exaggerate, my dear sir. There is nothing 
so much becomes a man as modesty, And there are people — 
Bothschild and Vanderbilt for instance — who would look upon 
twenty thousand pounds as quite an unconsidered trifle — unless 
you asked them for a loan of the same, and then they would be 
as hard as if they had not another cent. Well, yes, it is a fine 
fortune, and to tell the truth I feel myself awfully rich, a regu- 
lar Croesus ; all the more so, as, having invested my wealth in 
a country where interest is high, it makes me a larger income 
than I should be after getting from your British Consols, which 
are only securities for millionaires. I don’t spend a third of 
it — couldn’t, in fact, if I tried. And now to business. If you’ll 
oblige me by undertaking this search for the Phantom City, I’ll 
place a thousand pounds at your disposal as soon as ever we are " 
on dry land, and when that is spent, as much more as you want. 
What say you to that, amigo mio ! ” 

“ I accept your offer with all my heart, and pledge myself to 
find the Phantom City — if it exists — or perish in the attempt.” 

“ Spoken like a true Englishman. You English have some 
good points, though you do behave so badly to ould Ireland. I 
will say that. But I don’t think you will perish. You have a 
lucky look, and the Providence that protected you so marvel- 
ously in West Indian waters will not desert you in Central 
American wilds. Anyhow, you may be quite easy in your mind. 

If anything happens— if you should— if you should not come 
back — I’ll provide handsomely for your widdy.” 

“ Widow ! Why, I am not married.” 

“ But you may be. We none of us know what trials are be- 
fore us, and there are some very pretty girls in Yucatan,” said 
the reverend gentleman, with a look that made me laugh. 

“ It is very well to provide for contingencies, but to talk of 


Dominick’s proposal. 


25 


providing for a man’s widow before he gets a wife is rather too 
suggestive to be altogether pleasant,” I answered. 

“ Well, perhaps it is. And now I am going to tell you some- 
thing which is unpleasantly suggestive for me. I intend to 
make you my heir.” 

“ Your heir ! You are joking, Mr. Dominick.” 

“ Devil a bit. I mean, not at all. When I reach England I 
shall make a will, and leave you my ‘ universal legatee, ’ as the 
Spaniards say. All the same, I hope it will be a long time be- 
fore you come into your fortune, for I enjoy life too much to 
want to quit it before the end of the century.” 

“ I hope so too. But you are too generous, my dear sir. I 
have no claim on you, and there are those who have. And your 
relations in Ireland — I should be sorry for you to deprive them 
of what is rightly theirs.” 

“ Dear, dear, Doctor Carlyon ! For a man of superior edu- 
cation, with a head on his shoulders, you talk very much at 
random. I will answer your objections seriatim. How can I 
be too generous when I only propose to leave you what I cannot 
take away with me ? You have a claim on me, and a very great 
one — more than any other human being. My relations in Ireland 
are nearly all dead, and those who still live I don’t like ; and, 
finally, nothing that is mine can rightly be theirs. I have made 
up my mind to make you my heir, and nothing shall prevent 
me. But don’t fear (smiling), I shall not put you in the way of 
a temptation that might be too great a trial for your virtue. 
After the document is signed, I mean to take no more of your 
physic, Senor Doctor. Quien sabe ? (who knows ?) you might 
be putting curare in it, and that would not cure me, I’m think- 
ing. And now about the exploration. When will you start ? ” 

“ I shall send in my resignation as soon as we reach South- 
ampton, and be ready to start after a fortnight’s run ashore.” 

‘ ‘ Good ; your promptitude augurs well for your success. 
Where will you go first ? ” 

“ Where you may advise.” 

“Well, you have plenty of choice in the way of routes. 
Merida, Belize, Campeachy, Carmen, Guatemala,” said Mr. 
Dominick, thoughtfully. “But, everything considered, you 
had perhaps better go first to Merida. I have good friends 
there, who will give you all the help and information in their 
power. You should learn something of one of the Indian lan- 
guages, too ; and, though there is as great a confusion of 
tongues among the aborigines as there was at the Tower of 
Babel, Mayan is said to be the oldest, and will probably be the 
most useful. I should not be at all surprised if it is the lan- 
guage spoken by the Children of Light.” 


26 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


“ Why do they call themselves Children of Light ? ” 

“ Heaven only knows ! Perhaps because they are light-com- 
plexioned or light-haired. I hope it is not because they are 
light-fingered or light-headed. ” 

“By-the-bye, Mr. Dominick, you never told me what became 
of those fellows who deserted you. ” 

“ Did not I ? Oh, I believe the villains got safely home.” 

“ Do you think they bolted before the appearance of those 
Indians with the poisoned arrows, or after ? ” 

“ After, of course. But the fact is I have not nerve to con- 
duct such an expedition. I think you have. I ought to have 
shot that Tree Indian I told you about.” 

“ Shot him ! Why ? He did not attack you.” 

“No, but he told the others, and they attacked me with a 
vengeance. Shoot every Tree Indian you see. That is my ad- 
vice. You will regret it if you don’t.” 

This recommendation to shoot people in cold blood, coming 
from a man so good-natured as Dominick, and a minister of the 
Gospel to boot, startled me not a little ; but, remembering his 
Irish blood and his Spanish training, I thought it would perhaps 
be as well not to enter into a discussion on the subject, and so 
let it drop. 

“When will you go to Switzerland ? ” I asked. 

“ When you start for Central America,” was the answer. 

“ I should advise you to stay in Europe a whole year.” 

“How so? You said six months would make me another 
man. ” 

“ So I think still. But if you want to effect a radical cure of 
that wound, and thoroughly renovate your constitution, you 
should have a full year in Europe. Spend the summer in the 
Alps, and the winter in the Riviera.” 

“ I am in your hands, Dr. Carlyon, and I will do as you say. 
A year hence — no, better say thirteen months — we will try to 
meet at Merida — I, let us hope, with renovated health ; you 
with a full account of the Phantom City and the Children of 
Light, and an exciting story of moving accidents by flood and 
field.” 

“ If I am there first I will wait for you ; if you are there first 
you will wait for me. Is it agreed ? ” 

“ It is agreed.” 

Shortly afterwards Dominick went his way and I went mine, 
and, as the reader will presently learn, a good many things 
happened before we met again. 


THE MYSTERIOUS PENINSULA. 


27 


CHAPTER Y. 

THE MYSTERIOUS PENINSULA. 

A few weeks later I was sailing in the track of the old Span- 
ish navigators towards the setting sun. I voyaged by way of 
St. Thomas and Havana ; and one fine morning, just as night 
was melting into day, a silvery haze uprose from the silent sea, 
revealing the low and sandy coast of Yucatan, which, in an age 
incalculably remote, may have stretched as far as Cuba, possi- 
bly as far as Africa. It is possible, too, that without it Europe 
would never have become a centre of civilization, nor this isl- 
and the home of our race, for many geographers hold that the 
Yucatan Peninsula diverts the' Gulf Stream in a northerly di- 
rection, and, deprived of that warm current of the ocean, 
Britain would be a mass of ice and snow, and no fit habitation 
for man. Yet, if the prominent position of the Peninsula has 
done good, it has also wrought evil. By attracting the notice 
of Spanish discoverers, it led to the conquest of Anahuac, and 
the untold ills which have resulted from that dire event. Once 
the seat of an ancient civilization, the splendid relics of which 
are scattered broadcast over the land, Yucatan is now an out- 
lying state of the Mexican Republic ; but a great part of its 
nominal territory is held by unsubdued and revolted Indians, 
animated by feelings of deadly hatred towards the degenerate 
descendants of their former oppressors, who, unable to keep 
the land once conquered by their forefathers, are continually 
receding before an advancing flood of barbarism, which threat- 
ens ere long utterly to overwhelm them. 

Beyond the landward limits of the Peninsula lies a mysterious 
country of virgin forests, vast rivers, and volcanic peaks, 
bounded on the south by a chain of lofty mountains, which 
pour their waters on the one side into the Gulf of Mexico, on 
the other into the Pacific Ocean. 

It was somewhere in this unknown region that I hoped to find 
the Phantom City and the Children of Light. 

Yet, though Yucatan is so interesting a country, there is 
nothing remarkable in the scenery of its coast, which contrasts 
almost painfully with the superb beauty of the Antilles, and the 
wild grandeur of the Spanish Main. 

When the Ganges “ let go” in rapidly shoaling water, several 
miles from land, and I saw a white sand-bank, hardly rising 
above sea-level, dotted with palm-trees, among which were 
interspersed a few tile-roofed houses and a long wharf, blazing 


28 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


in the sun, and was told that this was Progreso, the chief port 
of the Peninsula, I felt both disappointed and depressed. I had 
expected — I don’t know why — something much more striking, 
and I saw in this early disenchantment a bad augury for the 
success of my enterprise. But I was always too susceptible to 
outward influences ; and though I have since, in a great meas- 
ure, outgrown this weakness, I am not even yet proof against 
the depressing influence of a dull day or a melancholy land- 
scape. 

We — I mean the other passengers of the Ganges and myself 
— went ashore in a lighter, and were driven to Merida, some 
twenty-four miles from Progreso, in the carriage of the country 
— the Yucatecan caleza — which is not unlike the Cuban volante. 

I liked Merida as much as I disliked Progreso. It has an 
old-world look, and its buildings — though the style of their 
architecture is mainly Moorish and Spanish — have about them 
something weird and mysterious, which reminds the beholder 
of the ruined buildings of Coban, and the vanished civilization 
of the old Toltec race. As my caleza rattled through the quaint 
streets, I could see, through paneless and iron-barred windows, 
groups of lovely girls with pale faces, black lustrous eyes, and 
raven hair — imprisoned and curious beauties, for, except at 
Carnival time, the Yucataneros keep their women almost as 
closely secluded as if they were followers of the False Prophet 
and dwellers in some far Eastern clime. 

Merida is one of the most favored of American cities, for, 
though hot enough in all conscience, it is not unhealthy, "and 
enjoys complete immunity from earthquakes and cyclones. I 
cannot truthfully say that the men are brave, but they are 
wonderfully kind, and exquisitely courteous ; and the women — 
at any rate, the young ones — are gracious and beautiful, with a 
beauty all their own ; and their picturesque dress does not, like 
that of their European sisters, disguise or distort the natural 
shapeliness of their bodies. I was not surprised to learn that 
no native of Merida ever leaves it without a fixed intention to 
return and spend there the remainder of his days. 

Dominick’s letters of introduction procured me a friendly 
reception, and opened to me many hospitable doors. His name 
acted as a charm, for he was well known, and had been very 
popular in Merida ; but, as his attempt to find the Phantom 
City was looked upon as Quixotic and slightly absurd, I took 
care not to disclose the true object of my visit ; saying, merely, 
that I intended to explore the ruined cities of the neighbor- 
hood, and might possibly go as far as Palenque in one direction, 
and Coban in the other. All the same, I found that everybody 
not only believed more or less in the existence of this particular 


THE MYSTERIOUS PENINSULA. 


29 


city, far away in the South, but of other cities in Yucatan itself, 
where unconquered Indians still worship the gods of their 
fathers, and keep up their old customs, and into which no white 
man is allowed to enter. The Meridaneros tremble at their 
very name. If a stranger penetrates into their country, the 
wild men of the woods either incontinently hack him to 
pieces with their machetes , or, putting a ring through his nose, 
fasten him by a long line to a stake, and torture him to death 
at leisure. These savages are rapidly extending their territory 
at the expense of the whites and the agricultural Indians ; 
ranch and hacienda are being destroyed one after the other, 
and the land of their owners added to the possessions of the 
dreaded sublevados (insurgent Indians). 

It is significant of the fear these sublevados inspire, that when 
I proposed to visit the ruins of Chichen-Itza, which are near 
their country, though only about thirty miles from Merida, I was 
strongly urged to engage a military escort. It seemed rather 
ridiculous, but as I neither wanted to be chopped in pieces with 
machetes , nor have a ring put through my nose, I did as I was 
advised. 

Fortunately, no hostile Indians made their appearance ; if 
they had done so I very much fear that the ragged soldiers of 
my escort would have left me in the lurch. And yet Merida has 
a population of fifty thousand, and the sublevados — whose haunt 
is chiefly in the north-west corner of the Peninsula — do not 
number more than six or seven thousand ! 

I will not inflict on my readers a description of the ruins of 
Chichen-Itza, nor of those of Uxmal and Ake, which I visited 
more than once. Words would fail to convey any adequate 
idea of their grandeur and magnificence, or of the impression 
they made on my mind. Some authorities assign to these 
mysterious monuments an antiquity of thousands of years ; and 
one enthusiastic explorer has expressed the opinion that the 
cradle of the world’s civilization must be sought in Central 
America. But so far as I was concerned, these speculations, 
however interesting, were of secondary importance. It was 
much more to the purpose that, according to an old tradition, 
there once existed in that part of the country where Yucatan, 
Guatemala, and Southern Mexico come together, a great theo- 
cratic State, whose capital bore the name of Xibalba (pronounced 
Hibalba), the very region I was bent on exploring. 

Could it be, I asked myself, that Xibalba and the Phantom 
City were the same ? 

I spent the most of my time in studying the Mayan language, 
reading the works of Bernal Diaz, and other ancient and modern 
travelers, making inquiries about the country and the people, 


30 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


and otherwise preparing for my expedition. When it became 
known that I was a medical man I had soon several patients. I 
even earned a few dollars ; and I believe that if I could have 
remained in the place I might have made a very fair practice. 
But I was anxious to be on the move ; and a few weeks after 
my arrival I reluctantly quitted the Yucatecan capital, and be- 
gan the first part of my inland journey. 

After long thought, and much poring over maps, I resolved 
to make first for Campeachy, and go thence to Peten, either by 
the direct trail or by Carmen and the lower Usamacinta. But, 
as I could not well travel alone, even if it had been expedient, I 
engaged an Indian servant, who knew the country, and rejoiced 
in the name of Pedro. Though short in stature, he was as 
muscular as a small Hercules, and as hard as nails. Chance, 
or, as Handsome Tommy would have said, Providence, also 
provided me with another companion. While staying at the 
Hotel Mexico, at Merida, I made the acquaintance of a Spaniard, 
who bore the high-sounding appellation of Senor Don Felipe 
Gomez de la Plata y Sombrero. He had been a play-actor at 
Madrid, a merchant’s clerk at Cuba, a soldier in Nicaragua, 
and jack-of -all -trades in Guatemala. He had, moreover, seen 
a good deal of Central America, and spoke fluently the Mayan 
language. But, though rich in names, he was poor in purse ; 
and when he knew that I was about to make a journey into the 
interior, he proposed to accompany me, “in any capacity,” 
asking for no other remuneration than his keep. As he was a 
lively young fellow, and might, I thought, prove useful when 
we got further afield, I took him, on his own terms, as my as- 
sistant — a title of which he seemed very proud — promising that 
if I could turn his service to account I would give him regular 
pay. But I made it a condition that I should not be expected 
to address him by all his names and titles ; he must choose the 
one he liked best, and drop the rest. To this he rather de- 
murred, observing that his family was one of the noblest in all 
Aragon, and that he had in his veins some of the bluest blood 
of Spain. However, he ended by agreeing to be known as Don 
Gomez. The Don was a sine qua non ; and as it was not a very 
big mouthful, I gracefully conceded the point. If I had dared, 
I would have dubbed him Sancho Panza ; for, though as deter- 
mined as ever to go on, and full of hope as to the success of my 
adventure, it reminded me, in some respects, of that once 
undertaken by the famous Knight of La Mancha and his faith- 
ful servitor and squire, 


CORNERED BY A CAYMAN. 


31 


CHAPTER VI. 

CORNERED BY A CAYMAN. 

We had three beasts of burden — a horse and two mules. The 
horse I rode myself ; one mule carried Don Gomez ; the other, 
Pedro and the baggage. But in case of need, the Indian was 
quite capable of footing it all the way, and carrying our be- 
longings on his shoulders — mine, rather, for, besides the 
clothes on his back, Senor de la Plata y Sombrero’s entire 
equipment consisted of a tooth-brush and a banjo. As for 
Pedro, all he possessed were a pair of trousers, a shirt, which 
he wore outside of them, a hat, and a machete — a long, broad, 
sword-like knife, which could be used with equal facility either 
to a fell a tree or split a skull. 

It is hardly necessary to say that we were armed. I had 
brought with me from England a repeating-rifle, a double- 
barreled fowling-piece, and an army revolver. I carried the 
rifle and the revolver, Gomez the fowling-piece, with which he 
seemed greatly pleased, and which he handled as if he knew 
how to use it. 

The Spaniard was a great rattle, and an amusing companion. 
He had the art of putting everybody in good-humor ; and when 
we made a halt at a hacienda, there was nothing he liked better 
than to play a few airs on his banjo, and perhaps sing a song or 
two for the benefit of our hosts, who — though the Don’s per- 
formance was mediocre, and his voice harsh — found the enter- 
tainment so much to their liking that they often pressed us to 
prolong our stay ; for it is one of the delights of travel in 
Northern Yucatan, that any hacendado (estate-owner) at whose 
house you may call will give you courtly welcome and ungrudg- 
ing hospitality, thinking himself more than repaid by a 
friendly gossip and the latest news from Europe or the States. 
Inns there are none. 

The part of the Peninsula through which we were traveling 
was flat, and — owing to its sunny climate, often too sunny to be 
pleasant — somewhat arid. Yucatan is, in truth, a great coral 
reef, totally destitute of surface water ; and without its mys- 
terious underground streams and lakelets, the country would 
be a desert. The rain percolates through the porous ground, 
hollows out huge caverns, and forms deep pools, which are 
said to communicate either with the river system of the south, 
or the lagoons of the coast ; a theory that, judging by a rather 
startling bit of comedy in which I played the leading part, is 
very likely to be true. 


32 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


Many of these pools, known as cenotes , being easily accessible, 
are utilized as bathing-places — and glorious baths they make. 
Imagine a cavern, forty or fifty feet deep, broken down at one 
side, and forming on the other an arch of stalagmite and stalac- 
tite, the haunt of winged creatures innumerable. Coco palms 
and avocado pear-trees grow at the bottom, thrusting their ver- 
dant crowns into a garden where great oranges hang in clusters, 
and rich flowers perfume the air. A flight of stone steps leads 
to the water’s edge ; and as you look upwards you see swallows 
circling in dense masses above the opening, while lizards and 
iguanas dart about the ledges of the rock, and hide among the 
tree-roots which hang from the coral roof of the cenote. The 
water is clear and deep, and exquisitely cool. 

When, after riding all day under a burning sun, you reach 
your journey’s end almost too exhausted to speak, your skin, it 
may be, smarting with mosquito bites and itching to madness 
with prickly heat, I know of no luxury to compare with a 
plunge into one of these fairy lakelets. It is as if you had 
taken a deep draught of the elixir of life ; you leave your woes 
in the water, and come out a fresh creature, refreshed and re- 
invigorated both in body and mind. 

Fairy lakelets, with magic waters, are these Yucatecan cenotes , 
yet not always the haunts of fays (only when Mayan maidens 
bathe in their cool recesses). 

Arriving one evening at a hacienda, after a particularly hard 
and dusty ride, I asked, almost before I dismounted, if there 
happened to be a cenote thereabouts. 

“Certainly,” was the answer ; “in that grove of mimosa and 
ceiba trees yonder, beyond the alameda ” (shaded walk). 

The next moment I was hurrying as fast as my stiffened 
legs would allow me in the direction pointed out. 

A big cenote , under the shade of tall trees with trailing 
branches ; a deep oval pool, at least sixty feet wide, evidently 
the reach of a large underground river. After the intense heat 
and the blazing sunshine, the green coolness and the dim relig- 
ious light of the cavern were inexpressibly grateful and refresh- 
ing. In two minutes I had doffed my clothes and taken a 
header into the crystal water. Right up the middle of the pool 
ran a reef of crimson coral ; but in the centre of it was a gap 
through which I swam, and, on reaching the other side, I sat me 
down on a ledge, drew a long breath, and looked round. Over- 
head were the usual rocky vault, pendent roofs, and darting 
lizards, and the air outside was thick with wheeling troops of 
swallows and hornets. 

Heaving a deep sigh of pleasure and relief, I dropped once 
more into the fairy pool, and was making for the gap, when I 


CORNERED BY A CAYMAN. 


33 


saw something black sticking out of the water. "What was it ? 
where could it have come from ? I asked myself. I went nearer ; 
I looked a second time. Horror ! it was the snout of an enor- 
mous alligator. 

In less time than it takes to tell I was back on the ledge. 

No, I was not mistaken. I could hear the snapping of the 
creature’s jaws, which looked big enough to take me in at a sin- 
gle mouthful. I sat there fully half an hour, hoping he would 
go away, for there was no road out except by the gap. But as 
he did not show the slightest intention to move, I began to get 
impatient, and thought how I should get rid of him. I had 
heard that alligators, like sharks, were easily frightened by 
noises. I made noises. I splashed the water, I yelled, I shouted, 
I threw stones, greatly to the surprise of the lizards, which 
darted about more frantically than ever. But it was not the 
least use. The cayman remained there, as immovable as fate, 
always with his snout out of the water, and glaring at me with 
his dull leaden eyes. Then I tried to stare him out. I might 
as well have tried to stare a knot out of a tree. 

There was clearly nothing for it but to wait until I was res- 
cued. My absence will alarm Gomez, I thought, and he is sure 
to come here and look for me. 

So he did, but not for an unconscionably long time. The 
Don was a devoted admirer of the fair sex, and, while I was at 
the cerwte , he was philandering with the girls of the hacienda, 
strumming on his banjo, and singing love songs in his own un- 
lovely voice. It was only when Pedro suggested that the Senor 
Doctor was a long time with his bathing that Gomez knew I 
had not come back, and it occurred to him that it might be as 
well to look after me. 

By this time the sun had set, but there was a moon that did 
almost as well, and when he and Pedro came down into the 
cenote I could see them, though they could not see me. 

* “ Senor Doctor ! Senor Doctor! Are you here?” shouted 
the Don. 

“ Yes, I am very much here,” I answered, with a shiver, for 
I was sitting stark naked on a cold and not very smooth stone, 
and the moonbeams, though bright, were not particularly 
warm. 

“ It gives me immense pleasure to hear you say so, Sefior 
Doctor. We were beginning to fear some harm had befallen 
you. I hope you are enjoying yourself.” 

“Enjoying myself!” I exclaimed indignantly. “Do you 
think I am staying here, in this ridiculous position, and on this 
confounded stone, because I like it ? Don’t you see that I am 
a prisoner ? ” 


3 


34 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


“ A prisoner ! ” 

“Yes, a prisoner. Look there in the water — at your side of 
the reef.” 

“ Caramba ! Why, it is a cayman. How did he get there ?” 

“ That I cannot tell you. My chief concern just now is how 
to get him away.” 

“ Oh, we will soon do that, Senor Doctor. How, Pedro ! ” 

And then they pelted the alligator with stones, cursed him in 
Spanish and Mayan, and shouted and yelled until I thought 
they would bring the roof of the cavern about our ears. But 
they might as well have tried to frighten an earthquake. The 
cayman did not even wink. He stuck to his post as grim as 
death, except for an occasional yawn, giving no sign of life. 

“It is no use, Don Gomez,” I said; “you might as well 
whistle. Fetch my rifle, and shoot the beast.” 

“ That is no use either, Senor Doctor; his back is bullet-proof, 
and his belly is under water. I know of a surer way than that. 
Possess your soul in patience a few minutes, and I’ll fetch 
him. You stay here, Pedro, and keep the Senor Doctor com- 
pany.” 

And with that Gomez whipped out of the cavern, running 
up the steps like a lamp-lighter. In ten minutes, which seemed 
like twenty, for I got colder and colder, and the stone did not 
get any smoother, lie was back with something under his arm. 
Then he went to the far end of the cenote , and the next moment 
I heard the howl of anguish which a dog gives when you pinch 
his tail. The effect on the cayman was magical. With a hungry 
snap of his jaws, and a great sweep of his tail, he swerved right 
round and went full speed for the howl. There is nothing an 
alligator likes so well as dog. 

“ How’s your time, Senor Doctor ! ” shouted Gomez. 

Before the words were out of his mouth I was in the water ; 
and two minutes later I was safe on the other side, rubbing 
myself down with a rough towel. 

“ All right, Don Gomez ! Has he got the dog ? ” I shouted. 

“Ho, he has not, and I don’t mean to let him, obstinate 
brute that he is. There, you have done your duty, go ! ” and 
the next moment the dog was running up the steps, faster, I 
should think, than he ever ran in all his life before. 

As we went out of the cavern the cayman returned to his 
post before the gap, under the impression, probably, that, 
though he had been disappointed of his dog, there was still 
material in the cenote for a substantial meal — and there we left 
him. 


THE FIRST ARROW. 


35 


CHAPTER VII. 

THE FIRST ARROW. 

“ There, Senor Doctor, what think you of that?” exclaimed 
Don Gomez, reining in his mule. “Said I not rightly that 
Campeachy was a fine city ; that you would like it much better 
than Merida ? ” 

We were on the hill of San Francisco, the sun was sinking 
behind the sierras, and never did his rays gild a richer land- 
scape or the glow of evening rest on a more charming picture. 
In front of us was a splendid panorama of white houses, culti- 
vated fields, blooming gardens, and greenest verdure ; while 
the walls and towers of the town stood out in strong relief, and 
were reflected in the azure waters of the Mexican Gulf. A fine 
city Campeachy is not, yet few cities are more picturesquely 
placed, and Nature has lavished on it some of her choicest 
gifts. The fibrous cleomece blooms in luxuriant hedgerows ; the 
fragrant arathemis perfumes the beach ; the pitaya, climbing 
the trunks of stately trees, suspends its flowers and fruit from 
their branches ; the Mexican poppy hangs its golden petals in 
road and street, and gay Caballeros and dark-eyed senoritas 
lounge and flirt in the orange groves that fringe the alameda 
of Santa Anna. 

Yet Campeachy is not quite an earthly paradise ; good Ameri- 
cans would possibly give the palm to Paris ; and there are En- 
glishmen who might prefer London, or even the Black Country, 
as a permanent place of abode. The climate is hot, and in the 
rainy season unhealthy ; yellow fever is not an infrequent vis- 
itor, and both town and country are infested by swarms of 
ferocious insects, which, under the combined influences of heat 
and moisture, multiply prodigiously. Cockroaches, scorpions, 
centipedes, and mosquitoes are as thick as leaves in autumn — 
so numerous, indeed, as to render some parts of the coast posi- 
tively uninhabitable. 

Then the forests are thronged with garrapatas , horrible 
creatures, which bury head and claws so deeply under your 
skin as to make their extraction impossible without leaving 
behind some part of their bodies to fret and fester in your flesh. 
And if by good fortune you escape these tiny man-eaters, you 
may not improbably encounter the deadly nahuyaca , a poison- 
ous snake, whose bite, though almost invisible, is nearly always 
fatal. Its victims are said to sweat blood, and die in terrible 
agony. 


36 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


Lovely to look at, Campeachy is about the last place in the 
world to live in. 

But I had not come to study the natural history of the 
country, or its eligibility as a residence. I intended to make it 
the point of departure for my expedition. So far, I had been 
traveling luxuriously ; now I was about to plunge into the 
wilderness, and Campeachy was the last place where I could 
obtain money and supplies, and, as I hoped, valuable infor- 
mation. I meant also, if possible, to enlist two or three trust- 
worthy recruits ; for I felt sure that if I took with me only 
Indians I should fail as utterly as Dominick had failed. The 
native whites were not much better ; they have neither enter- 
prise nor endurance. I could not rely on them in a fight ; and, 
unless all my information was at fault, we should not reach the 
Phantom City without a good deal of fighting. Gomez was all 
right. I told him about my project as we came along, and he 
declared his determination to stand by me through thick and 
thin, happen what might. 

“I have nothing but my life,” he said, “and that is not 
worth much. I come of a race that never feared death, and I 
will go with you to this Phantom City, Senor Doctor, even 
though ten thousand Indian devils barred the way.” % 

Bold words, but Spaniards are tall talkers by nature ; the 
Don, however, was no coward. 

I came by another recruit in a way equally welcome and un- 
expected. While calling upon a merchant, to whom I had let- 
ters of introduction from friends at Merida, I happened to 
mention that I was contemplating a journey into the unex- 
plored interior, and should be glad if I could find a companion 
or two. 

“ I know just the man for you,” said the merchant. “ He is 
an American of the North, who has come here on business, and 
would like to see something more of the country, if he can get 
anybody to go with him. I will bring you together. ” 

And so he did. The moment I set eyes on the American of 
the North I liked him. A tall, big-boned, straight-backed man 
of about thirty, with a bronzed face, a short brown beard, hazel 
eyes, a pleasant smile, and the quiet, self-contained manner so 
characteristically American. The name on his card was “ Aus- 
tin B. Wildfell.” He had come to Campeachy in connection 
with a “spec.” in logwood, he said, and, being on the spot, he 
had rather a notion of exploring the country a bit, about 
which, as he understood, very little was known. Might he join 
my party ? 

“ Certainly,” I answered. And then I inquired if his object 
was curiosity — or something else. 


THE FIRST ARROW. 


37 


“ Both curiosity and something else, Dr. Carlyon. I like 
traveling in new countries, and I want to see what sort of 
woods this country grows, especially dye-woods, in w T hich it is 
reported to be very rich. I guess, too, there is gold in it ; and 
I should not much object to find a quarry of auriferous quartz 
or horn silver. A friend of mine found gold on the Rio Frio, 
but he was quite alone, and the Indians were too many for 
him.” 

On this I explained my object, told him all I knew about the 
Phantom City, and said, finally, that if he joined me I should 
expect him to g6 to the journey’s end, the perils of which I 
fully disclosed. 

“ I’ll go with you,” he said, quietly. “I’d like to see that 
city most particular. And, as for the danger, I’ve faced worse 
enemies than naked Indians who fight with bows and arrows. 
I saw service in our war.” 

“Ah ! it struck me you looked like an old soldier. In what 
capacity, might I ask ? ” 

“Full private.” 

This increased my respect for Mr. Wildfell. I had met a good 
many Americans who had “ served in our war,” but none who 
acknowledged having held any lower rank than that of colonel 
or major. To have been a private in the Federal Army was a 
rare distinction, and I honored my new friend accordingly. 

But his business was not quite completed, and he could not 
leave Campeachy for a fortnight. I did not want to stay at 
Campeachy a fortnight ; I wanted to be pushing on. This dif- 
culty, after a short talk, was settled to our mutual satisfaction. 

Until I met Mr. Wildfell I had not quite decided whether it 
would be better to make for Peten, as far as I could, by water, 
or go all the way overland. I wanted to explore the country in 
bom directions ; but, that being impossible, I proposed he 
should take the one route, I the other. I would start first, 
travel by Carmen and the Laguna de los Terminos, get as far as 
I could up the Usamacinta, and join him at Flores, on the lake 
of Peten. If he left Campeachy ten days or a fortnight after 
me, taking the land trail all the way, we should probably arrive 
about the same time — the one who arrived first to wait for the 
other. 

Wildfell agreed. 

“ Next Thursday week I shall set out for this Flores — Flowers 
does not it mean ? And you may expect me when I get there, 
which will be as soon as I can. And, as you want another hand 
or two, I’ll see if I cannot bring somebody with me warranted 
to stand fire. Half a dozen of us, well armed, should walk 
through any amount of wild Indians.” 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


On this understanding I transferred my horse and the two 
mules to my new ally, and took passage for myself, Gomez, and 
Pedro, in a sailing-boat bound for Carmen. Before leaving 
Campeachy I got the Don a new suit of clothes, for the old 
ones had suffered so much from the journey that he had hardly 
a rag to his back. I also gave him a few dollars on account of 
his pay, and I was amused to notice that he at once provided 
himself with a fresh tooth-brush and a new banjo. I think he 
must have spent the balance in chocolates and cigarettes, for 
when not smoking the one he was drinking the other. 

As we passed Champoton I happened to mention that it was 
a notable place in the history of the Conquest. The Spaniards 
landed there three times in twenty years, and were every time 
repulsed. In the first battle they were commanded by Cortez, 
and I was not surprised to learn that one of his companions 
was an ancestor of Don Gomez. 

‘ 1 Don Alonzo de la Plata was one of the great conquistador's 
most valiant captains,” he observed, gravely. “He always 
said my ancestor was a host in himself. If they had all been 
like him, the battle of Carmen would have been a great vic- 
tory.” 

‘ ‘ When did the battle of Carmen take place ? I don’t quite 
remember the date — do you, Don Gomez ? ” 

“ Certainly,” answered my assistant, who never owned to ig- 
norance. “Nine hundred and something. I cannot recall the 
odd figures. In ancient history, moreover, I always regard 
them as superfluous. It is quite enough to reckon by cen- 
turies.” 

“ Nine hundred, Don Gomez ! That is a very long time ago.” 

“It may seem so. But pray remember, Senor Doctor, that 
the De la Platas are one of the oldest families in Spain.” 

After this there was nothing more to be said. The antiquity 
of a man’s family, one of whose ancestors fought under Cortez 
six hundred years before Cortez was bom, and who counted 
time by centuries, was clearly beyond discussion. 

The Usamacinta enters the Gulf of Mexico by several chan- 
nels, the largest of which, the Kio Palizada, flows into the La- 
goon of Terminos. The name (confines) is significant. When 
the Spanish navigators got there they thought they had reached 
the confines of the continent, and, though Cortez conquered 
Mexico, neither he nor his followers ever went much farther on 
this side than Tobasco and the Tumbula mountains. 

At the northern extremity of the lake lie the island and town 
of Carmen, where we exchange our sailing-boat for a craft of 
smaller dimensions, known as a cayuca , which is simply the 
hollowed trunk of a tree, and begin our ascent of the great 


THE FIRST ARROW. 


39 


river. And a slow business it proves, the stream being too 
swift to admit of rowing ; so there is nothing for it but pulling, 
with the help, when the wind is fair, of a sail. 

We are now in the tierra caliente , and Nature reigns su- 
preme. Great willows with trailing branches, gigantic bamboos, 
beautiful sedges, aquatic palm-trees with slender stems, beau- 
tiful sedges with trailing branches, bend over the fast-flowing 
and meandering river. The water swarms with fish. Birds of 
brilliant plumage perch on the boughs, and wing their flight 
over the tree-tops. The aramus delights the ear with his ring- 
ing voice ; gorgeous butterflies and richly-hued humming-birds 
hover in the heated air ; the falcon, uttering piercing shrieks, 
plunges suddenly into the water, soars skyward with his prey, 
and whirls higher and higher until he is lost to sight. But as 
if in rebuke of the vain theory that the world was created 
specially for man, here, where animal and vegetable life is so 
intense and abundant, the human race is unable to thrive — can 
hardly even exist. The air reeks with miasma ; the winged 
fiends of the forest make life a torment and repose impossible. 
The few dwellers in this glorious garden of Nature are puny in 
body, poor in physique, and nerveless in spirit. Suffering from 
the most horrible skin diseases, disfigured by goitre and ele- 
phantiasis, eaten up with jiggers, tormented with boils, de- 
voured by mosquitoes, and decimated by fevers, the wonder is 
that they do not all utterly perish. 

I asked Don Gomez what he thought of the country. 

“ It is heaven to look at,” he said, “ but — something quite dif- 
ferent to live in. ” 

And most people, I think, would be disposed to concur in 
the Spaniard’s verdict. Yet for all that I enjoyed my first ex- 
perience of the Usamacinta. The scenery was so superb, the 
novelty so intense, the idea that I was traveling towards the 
Unknown — that every moment brought me nearer to that land 
of mystery which I had resolved either to see or die — all this so 
excited my imagination and occupied my thoughts that I cared 
as little for the cockroaches that crawled over us by day as for 
the mosquitoes that preyed on us by night. 

Noon was my time of repose. It was then, and only then, 
that the birds ceased their singing, that the myriad noises of 
the forest were hushed, the leaves drooped, and the breeze died 
away. Leaning back in the cayuca , under the shade of over- 
hanging branches and bending flowers, I would lazily watch the 
trees and savannas float before my half -closed eyes, fancy for 
a moment that it was all an hallucination, and then drop off 
into a deep and dreamless slumber. 

At length, after much labor and many days’ pulling — for at 


40 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


night we always lay to and camped out — we reached our desti- 
nation, the rapids of the Usamacinta. Farther we could not 
go, for several good and sufficient reasons : the rapids bar the 
river to navigation ; unconquered Indians hold the country be- 
yond, and it was at this point we had to begin our land journey 
to Flores, where I hoped to meet Wildfell. All the same, I re- 
solved to go as far as possible, and with some difficulty pre- 
vailed on our boatmen to take me and Don Gomez to the foot 
of the rapids, where the Usamacinta, after cleaving a passage 
through the sierras, makes an abrupt bend. At a point where 
all issue seems closed, and the stream looks as if it were pour- 
ing out of the mountain side, a sudden turn reveals the gap 
towards which it is rolling in a sheet of white foam from the 
heights above. The farther we go the narrower becomes the 
stream. Imprisoned between tall grey rocks, rising sheer from 
the water’s, edge, it reminded me of the grand scene near the 
Fort de l’Ecluse, where the “arrowy Khone ” rushes through 
the gorges of Savoy towards the plains of France. 

I wanted to go still farther, for as yet we were in compara- 
tively smooth water, and I was urging the men to increased ex- 
ertion, when I heard a shout of fear, the cayuca whirled sud- 
denly round, and I narrowly escaped being thrown into the 
water. > 

An arrow, shot by an invisible hand, had grazed the, steers- 
man’s arm, and was quivering in the side of the boat. 

After this it would have been impossible, even if it had been 
wise, to push on ; so I told the men to take us back to the little 
bay where we had left Pedro and our baggage, and where I 
meant to pass the night. 

As I lay in my hammock, under the branches of a mighty 
tree — the rush of the river, the howling of monkeys, and the 
cries of night birds in my ears — I pondered long and deeply 
over the incident which had just come to pass. The Lacan- 
dones, or Manches, or Tolishes, or whoever they might be, evi- 
dently guarded well this avenue into their domain. It was 
clearly impossible to attain my object by sailing up the Usama- 
cinta. And yet I had every reason to believe that on or near 
this stream, or one of its affluents, the Phantom City must be 
sought. 


MY NEW RECRUITS. 


41 


CHAPTER VIII. 

MY NEW RECRUITS. 

At a village near the falls I succeeded in hiring, not without 
difficulty, two horses and two mules for the journey to Peten. 
The horses were for Don Gomez and myself, the mules for the 
baggage, the amount of which I had increased both at Cam- 
peachy and Carmen. Pedro preferred to walk. I also engaged 
three arrieros , or muleteers — lithe little fellows, as hardy as 
alligators and as active as cats. 

We were now at the foot of the sierras, and in a much less 
relaxing climate than that of the humid plains of Tobasco — a 
fact to which the improved condition of the natives was no 
doubt due. Yet the vegetation was as luxuriant as ever, and I 
found riding anything but a delight. Travelers being few and 
far between, the tracks they made were speedily obliterated. 
Even a macadamized street, if left to itself, would soon be over- 
grown, and a mere path through the forest disappears in a few 
weeks. Wayfarers in these wilds must be prepared to act on 
occasion as their own roadmakers, and my arrieros had often 
to go on before, literally hewing a path with their machetes . 
As for the horses — bits being unknown in this part of Central 
America — they went pretty much as they chose, naturally taking 
the path they liked best, without regard for the convenience of 
their riders, heedless alike of projecting branches, which threat- 
ened us with the fate of Absalom, and of the sharp-thorned 
briers which tear the flesh like iron hooks. We had to be con- 
tjpually on the watch, and dodge these dangers as best we could, 
now dropping our heads below the horses’ necks, now leaning 
back on the cruppers, sometimes even slipping off behind. 

After we had been en route a few days, Gomez observed that 
he had become so accomplished a horseman that he thought, 
when he got back to Spain, he should join a circus. 

“ADe la Plata join a circus ! ” 

“ You forget, Senor Doctor,” he answered with great dignity, 
“you forget that while aDe la Plata can never degrade himself 
by honest work, he always adds lustre to any profession which 
it may please him to adopt.” 

Considering the character of the country, and the difficulties 
of the way, we probably got on as well as could be expected ; 
but it was thirteen days after leaving the rapids of the Usama- 
cinta before we reached the first village in the district of Peten. 
Late one sunny afternoon we emerged from the forest, and 


42 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


found ourselves close to an azure lake, in the middle of which 
a small picturesque island rose in a gentle ascent from the 
water’s edge. Its summit was crowned with a church and a 
grove of cocoa-trees, and along the shore and on the hill-side 
clustered public buildings and private dwellings, most of the 
latter of a very poor sort, but probably quite sufficient for the 
modest needs of the inhabitants and the exigencies of the 
climate. 

The lake was Itza, the village, Flores, where I had agreed to 
meet Wildfell, and quite expected to find him. I lost no time 
in seeking out the corregidor of the place, and inquiring if any 
strangers had arrived from the coast during the last few days. 

“ Certainly not, nor during the last few weeks, nor, I might 
truthfully say, during the last few months. Strangers seldom 
honor us with their presence here at Flores, Senor Don. ” 

This was not pleasant news. More than a month had passed 
since I left Campeachy, and I began to fear that Wildfell had 
either changed his mind or lost his way. But as he might not 
have been able to start as soon as he anticipated, and his help 
would be invaluable, I decided to wait for him until his coming 
was past hoping for. 

The corregidor — a fat, smiling, genial, and slightly pompous 
old gentleman — treated me with the most distinguished con- 
sideration, found me lodgings, and, in the old Spanish fashion, 
placed himself and everything he had at my disposal. His local 
pride was gratified by my visit, which it pleased him to think 
was due entirely to the attractions of Peten ; and when I men- 
tioned that I expected every moment the arrival of an Ameri- 
can del Norte, from Campeachy, the old fellow was quite in 
ecstasies. 

“ I will have a look-out kept for him,” he exclaimed. “ Your 
friend shall be received with every honor due to so distinguished 
a visitor. I regret infinitely, Senor Don Carlyon, that, owing 
to my not being informed of your approach, I was unable to give 
you the reception which, in view of the friendly relations exist- 
ing between our respective countries and my position as corregi- 
dor of the distriet, you had a right to expect. Hagame Usted 
el favor (do me the extreme favor) to accept the will for the 
deed.” 

Which I did, of course, with many thanks for the honor I had 
missed and the hospitality I had received. 

The old man was as good as his word. Every morning he 
sent out an Indian runner on the trail by which Wildfell was 
expected to come, with orders to return full speed whenever he 
caught sight of an estranero. On the third day after my arrival 
I was roused from my usual siesta by the corregidor himself, who 


MY NEW RECRUITS. 


43 


told me, with many expressions of satisfaction, that the runner 
had just come in with the news that a party of horsemen and 
arrieros were crossing the savannas, a few miles from Flores, 
and at the rate they were traveling would probably arrive in an 
hour. 

“ They are doubtless your friends the Americanos del Norte” 
he added. 

“ Not a doubt of it,” I answered, wondering how many re- 
cruits Wildfell was bringing me. “ If you will have the good- 
ness to get me a horse I will go and meet them.” 

“With infinite pleasure, Senor Don Doctor, and I, on my 
part, will prepare for them a fitting reception.” 

The steed was brought. I crossed the lake in a boat, and set 
out to meet the travelers, who I tried to feel sure were Wildfell 
and his people. Yet they might not be, and I prepared myself 
for a possible disappointment. But I had not gone far when 
my doubts disappeared. That tall man on the little horse could 
be none other than the American. Who the others were I could 
form no idea. There seemed to be at least half a dozen mounted 
men, and twice as many arrieros on foot. 

“Well, we are here at last,” exclaimed Wildfell, reining up 
and giving me his hand. ‘ ‘ I suppose this is Flores ? Anyhow, 
judging from the quantity of flowers, it ought to be. Why, the 
savannas down below there are carpeted with them. And don’t 
they smell sweet ! This beats a scent-store any day.” 

‘ ‘ That’s vanilla. Those are vanilla beans lying about there. 
I hope you have had a pleasant journey ? ” 

‘ ‘ Well, I cannot say that we have. What with chopping down 
trees, jumping over logs, scrambling through bramble-bushes, 
climbing up precipices, slipping down mountains, and rafting 
over rivers, and one thing and another, it is about the un- 
pleasantest journey I ever undertook. We’ve had a shocking 
bad time, that’s a fact. Why, we had to wait in one place 
nearly a week before we could get over a river ! It was too 
deep for fording and too swift for swimming or rafting. If it 
had not gone down we should have been there yet. I’ll tell you 
what it is, Doctor Carlyon : if the country before us is as pri- 
meval as that behind us, we shall be as long in reaching this 
Phantom City of yours as the Children of Israel were in reach- 
ing the Promised Land. However, in for a penny in for a 
pound. I said I would go with you, and go I will. But let me 
introduce you to my friend, Mr. Fernando. He means to go 
too, and I am sure will prove a valuable ally.” 

Here Mr. Fernando and I shook hands, and said how 
delighted we were to make each other’s acquaintance. He was 
almost as big a man as Wildfell himself ; middle-aged, swart- 


44 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


skinned, and black-eyed, and but for an ugly scar which 
stretched from the root of his nose to the corner of his mouth, 
a face pitted with small-pox, and a something peculiar about 
one of his eyes, he might have been not ill-looking. I learnt 
afterwards, as I supposed at the time, that the peculiarity arose 
from the eye in question being of glass ; and when Mr. Fer- 
nando raised his hat it was evident that he wore a wig. But 
the sparseness of hair upon his skull was much more than 
atoned for by the quantity that adorned his chin and cheeks. 
His mustaches were of portentous length, and a cascade of 
black beard fell nearly to his waist. 

Altogether Mr. Fernando was a gentleman of very distingue 
appearance. 

“I picked him up at Campeachy after you left,” continued 
Wildfell, sotto ifbce, as we rode side by side towards Flores. 
“His name sounds Spanish, and his looks are foreign ; but he 
is an American citizen, raised in the State of Florida, and just 
the man you want. Seen a good deal of Indian fighting, served 
in the Seminole war — that is where he got that scratch on his 
face — and in spite of his game eye, he could shoot an apple off 
your head at a hundred yards.” » 

‘ ‘ I should not like to let him try. What was the induce- 
ment ? ” 

“ For him to join us, you mean ? ” 

“Yes.” 

“Fifty dollars down, and a promise of more when the busi- 
ness is put through. Not much, seeing that he has to risk his 
life. But he is a born adventurer, and has an idea that, even 
if we don’t reach the Phantom City, we shall have a good time. 
He thinks there is no end of gold in the country.” 

“ And who are those two fellows on the mules ? ” 

“Guatemala mestizos (half-breeds). They say they served 
with General Mendoza in the last civil war, and know the In- 
dian country. They are likely chaps, and I dare say will go 
with us. Both are called Jose (pronounced Ho-say), so, to pre- 
vent confusion, I have christened one Boss and the other Hoss. 
Him with the squint is Hoss ; and you can always tell Boss by 
his being short of an ear — he lost it in a rough-and-tumble with 
a jaguar.” 

I began to think that Mr. Wildfell had brought me some 
queer recruits, and I asked myself, not without misgiving, what 
the Children of Light would think of them. 

By the time we reached the lake, the entire population of the 
village had assembled on the shore. And very picturesque 
they looked, especially the girls, some of whom, despite the 
duskiness of their complexions, were really good-looking ; and 


MY NEW RECRUITS. 


45 


all having fine flashing black eyes and shapely forms, none 
could be called ugly. A chemise of thin cotton stuff, trimmed 
with lace, and a simple muslin skirt of some bright color, con- 
stitute the rather scanty, yet graceful, costume of a Flores 
senorita. The hair, always luxuriant and beautiful, and plaited 
with gay ribbons, hangs down the back. A crescent-shaped 
comb glitters on the top of the head, and a necklace of pearls 
and small gold coin completes the adornment of the dark-eyed 
daughters of Peten. 

The men — armed to the teeth in honor of the occasion, with 
pistols and carbines of ancient date — though wearing only 
trousers and shirts and broad-brimmed sombreros, looked also 
picturesque and slightly savage. 

The corregidor was a sight to see. His white trousers, which 
seemed to have shrunk in the washing, left uncovered several 
inches of a pair of fat and hairy legs, stockings being unknown 
luxuries in the district of Peten. Vest he had none, but he had 
contrived to struggle into an old, richly laced, and* profusely 
brass-buttoned uniform coat a world too little for him ; on his 
head was a cocked hat of the fashion of the last century, and 
he had girded him with a sword big enough to have been 
wielded by the immortal Cortez at the battle of Champoton. 

After making a little high-flown speech, in which he expressed 
his deep sense of the honor of our visit, and the hope that our 
respective countries would remain at peace for all time, the cor- 
regidor rather startled us by calling out “ Fire ! ” Whereupon 
the men discharged their muskets, and a youth, whom we had 
not previously noticed, began to beat a big drum with a vigor 
that elicited general applause. 

“Well,” said Wildfell, “Fveseen a good many things; but 
this is the first time I’ve seen a drummer with nothing in the 
world'on but his drum and a straw hat.” 

It was true ; the youth had nothing else on. 

In the evening the corregidor gave a tertulia, which proved 
to be a delightful evening entertainment. The ladies sang 
charming little songs to their own accompaniment on the guitar. 
Then the marimbas struck up, and the fun began in real ear- 
nest. Our host insisted that Wildfell and myself should “ tread 
a measure,” and provided us with two lovely little partners, and 
we found ourselves dancing a fandango before we knew what 
we were about. Then rum was served round, the senoritas 
sipping it with as much unconcern as English ladies sip cham- 
pagne at an evening party. 

The men more than sipped, and I fear our friend the corregi- 
dor drank more than was good for him. At any rate he had a 
terrible headache next morning, and I gave him an effervescing 


46 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


draught, for which he was so grateful that he offered, if I would 
consent to stay at Flores for good, to adopt me as his son and 
make me his heir. 


CHAPTER IX. 

OYER THE MOUNTAINS. 

Three days later we set out. Besides Wildfell, his three re- 
cruits, Don Gomez, and Pedro, I had six arrieros , whom I in- 
tended to take with me as far as they were willing to go and it was 
possible for the horses and mules to travel. I did not disclose, 
even to the corregidor, the object of our journey, merely saying 
that we were going farther into the interior ; but he took our 
parting so much to heart that I promised, if it were possible, to 
look him upon my way back, and, having more dollars and 
doubloons with me than I was likely to require, I left part of 
them in his hands, asking him, if he did not hear from me within 
a year and a day, to remit the amount to my bankers in 
Merida. 

He seemed to consider this an excellent joke, and regarded it 
as a pledge of our speedy return. 

“ I shall see you again in three months,” he said, as we shook 
hands at parting. 

I smiled incredulously, for, whatever else might befall me, I 
felt sure that I should never see Flores again. 

My objective point was the region between the rivers Usama- 
cinta and Lacandone, for there, I thought, I was most likely to 
find the Phantom City. But, as the maps of this part of the 
country are purely conjectural, and I knew nothing of its phys- 
ical characteristics, I should, in a great measure, have to grope 
my way and leave much to Providence. I only knew that if I 
bore sou’ -west by south, and crossed the Cordilleras, which 
stretch in an irregular line from the confines of British Hondu- 
ras to the ruins of Palenque, I should be sure, sooner or later, 
to strike the great river. I intended to follow the regular 
tracks, such as they were, as long as I could. After that, we 
should have to direct our course by the compass ; and, as I 
had brought with me a snuff-box sextant, a first-class chronom- 
eter watch, and a nautical almanac, I could always, by taking 
lunar and solar observations, ascertain our position within a 
mile or two. 

Nothing could well be more agreeable than the first part of 
our new journey. The country was elevated and undulating, 
the track broad and firm ; blue hills were visible in the dis- 


OVER THE MOUNTAINS. 


47 


tance ; instead of struggling through the dense forests of the 
tierra caliente , we rode gayly through groves of park-like trees, 
thronged with birds, and over ground enameled with richly- 
hued, sweet-smelling flowers. We generally passed the night at 
some hacienda, where we were always warmly welcomed, or in 
the neighborhood of a village where we could obtain such sup- 
plies as we required. At other times we slung our hammocks 
on the branches of a tree, and slept h la belle etoile. Faisans 
(not pheasants), deer, wild pig, and kuomeys, being plentiful, 
we had no difficulty in replenishing our larder, and bananas and 
yams seldom failing, we fared sumptuously every day ; while 
living continually in the open air, and, being ever on the move, 
we were all in splendid health and exuberant spirits. 

It was only when we reached the foot of the Cordilleras that 
our difficulties began. No more haciendas, no more villages, 
and as neither guides nor information were obtainable — for the 
region we were now in was unpeopled and had never been ex- 
plored — we had to find our way as best we could ; now cutting 
a path through dense jungle, now going miles round to avoid a 
barranca, or dragging our four-footed companions up some 
stony ravine. At last we had to leave them behind, for, clever 
as Central American horses and mules are, they cannot climb 
perpendicular heights. So we sent them and the arrieros back, 
all save two of the latter, whom I persuaded to go with us. I 
did not expect them to fight much, if it came to that ; but we 
had a good many things to carry : hammocks, palates (a sort of 
mat which serves the double purpose of an umbrella and a shel- 
ter tent), changes of clothing, arms and ammunition, and a 
supply of food — for we could not count on always finding a suf- 
ficiency of game — and without their help we should have been 
decidedly overweighted. Yet I bitterly regretted afterwards 
that we did take them. The others were all volunteers, but 
these poor little tame Indians, as Wildfell called them, went 
reluctantly, induced by promises of a reward, which they were 
destined never to receive. 

Pedro proved a perfect treasure. He became much attached 
to me, and, though I offered him the chance, he positively re- 
fused to return with the arrieros. He had spent all his life in 
the forest, was as keen of vision as a hawk, could read signs, 
and knew where to look for water, fruit trees, and edible roots. 
No journey was too long for him, no burden too heavy, and, 
though he knew nothing of the country we were in, he had 
picked up odds and ends of information about the wild Indians 
which I found very useful. He told me, among other things, 
that the use of poisoned arrows was confined to the Lacandones 
on the lower Usamacinta ; and that the Choles, with whom we 


48 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


should most probably come first in contact, fought in the fashion 
of their forefathers, with huge bows and ordinary arrows, shields, 
spears, and large wooden swords edged with flints. They might 
have a few guns, captured in forays, or obtained from Chris- 
tianized Indians, but, in the absence of a regular supply of 
powder, these weapons could not be of much use to them. 
Armed as we were we should be more than a match for any 
wandering parties of braves we might casually meet, and, un- 
less our presence in the country became known through our 
own imprudence, we could not well be taken unawares. Except 
in overwhelming numbers, the aborigines were not likely to face 
us in open fight. Surprise was our greatest danger. It behooved 
us, therefore, to take every precaution, keep a sharp look-out, 
kindle no fires save in places where the smoke could not be 
seen, make no more noise than we could help, and if we saw 
any Indian sign turn another way. 

I left the reading of signs to Pedro ; but I did not fail to 
impress on my companions the necessity of following his ad- 
vice — whatever we might think about his facts. As to this all 
agreed, and for awhile were as cautious as I could desire ; but 
as time went on and we saw neither Indians nor signs of any, 
caution was gradually relaxed. 

Fernando and the mestizos gave me much trouble and anx- 
iety. They evidently thought that the Phantom City was a 
mere pretext, and that my real object was to look for gold. 
Fernando, having been a digger in California, possessed some 
knowledge of mining, and whenever we made a halt he would 
go off on a private exploring expedition of his own, taking with 
him Hoss and Boss, who would fire their rifles, whatever I said, 
thereby adding to our risk and wasting ammunition, which we 
had no means of replacing. Yet I could not be very severe 
with them, for the journey over the Cordilleras was extremely 
trying, and it was as much as I could do to keep up their cour- 
age and persuade them to go on. We had to crawl up gullies 
on our hands and knees, and make Pedro and the arrieros 
climb rocks, monkey fashion, and help us up afterwards with 
ropes. We had often to retrace our steps for miles, and travel 
days together without advancing a mile, in order to double 
some impassable barranca or avoid some unfordable mountain 
stream. 

Game failed us, too, and if it had not been for the totoposte 
— roasted maize paste — which at Pedro’s suggestion we had 
brought with us, we should have been in very evil case — per- 
haps have perished miserably of hunger. It is not very luxuri- 
ous food this totoposte — it lacks variety ; yet Indians, when on 
a journey, eat little else, and as it is easily carried and emi- 


OVER THE MOUNTAINS. 


49 


nently nutritious, I do not think we could have taken anything 
more suitable. But it was a great change from faisan and 
monkey, and Fernando and Hoss and Boss grumbled continu- 
ally, and became very discontented. If it had not been for fear 
of losing their way and coming to grief, I feel sure they would 
have deserted us. Wildfell, on the other hand, took everything 
with philosophical indifference, never allowing himself to be 
either flurried or put out of temper ; and Gomez, besides being 
naturally high-spirited, was too proud to complain. Often of 
an evening, when we were lying in our hammocks or stretched 
on the ground, he would play an air on his banjo and sing us 
some of his Spanish love-songs. The music w T as not of a very 
high quality, perhaps, but it pleased the arrieros and Hoss and 
Boss immensely, and helped to pass the time when we were too 
weary to talk and too tired to sleep. 

At length, after many disappointments — for we had several 
times reached heights which seemed the loftiest, only to find, 
when we got thither, that there were others still higher — we 
won the topmost point of the Cordilleras, and began to go down 
hill. It was easier, though not much, than going up ; but the 
country improved as we descended, and as we bagged a deer 
and a few head of game, our spirits improved considerably, and 
we began to speculate as to what we should find farther on. 

Still no Choles, nor sign of them, nor of any human presence 
whatsoever. 

“ I’ll tell you what it is, Doctor Carlyon,” said Wildfell one 
day about this time, “ I begin to think those Indians are hum- 
bugs. We are like Robinson Crusoe, lords of all we survey.” 

I began to think so, too, and though Pedro shook his head 
and looked grave, we grew very careless — laughed and shouted, 
and shot, and cooked our game at big fires, as if we knew for 
a fact that there were no Indians within a hundred miles of us. 

Yet there were certain precautions which we did not relax, 
and which became a part of the daily routine of our lives. We 
never camped at night or rested during the day until Pedro 
had carefully surveyed the ground and pronounced it safe 
and free from “sign.” When we were on the march he 
and the arrieros went always some score or two yards ahead, 
keeping a sharp look-out for any traces that might indicate the 
vicinity of Indians or other dangerous animals. Next came 
Wildfell and myself, loaded rifles slung over our shoulders, and 
machetes by our side. Then followed Hoss and Boss, similarly 
armed, Fernando and Gomez bringing up the rear. This 
order was necessarily varied according to the character of 
the country. In many places we had to march in single file, 
but we kept to it as far as possible, Each man, moreover, had 
4 


50 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


his appointed duty in the preparation of our bivouacs, and each 
carried a pack, but the bulk of our belongings was borne on the 
shoulders of Pedro and the arrieros. 

We must have presented a strange spectacle — or should have 
done, if there had been anybody to look at us — the three stout 
heavily-laden little Indians in front, naked to the waist, missing 
nothing within the range of their vision, often, with machetes in 
hand, cutting away vines, thorns, and other impediments to 
locomotion, as they walked ; we four whites, all tall men, our 
faces burnt black-red, scarred with wounds from the prickly 
bejucos , and swollen with mosquito bites, wearing red flannel 
shirts, broad-brimmed straw hats, and ragged trousers the color 
of which was generally that of the ground we were traveling 
over, and the two mestizos, undersized and ill-favored, similarly 
attired, but perhaps slightly more ragged. As Wildfell said, 
our own mothers would not have known us. 

We had descended, perhaps, two thousand feet from the 
summit of the Cordilleras, and were marching somewhat in the 
order described, in fairly open ground — although, owing to the 
bigness of the trees, we could not see far ahead — when Pedro 
stopped suddenly short, and, uttering an exclamation, ran 
hastily forward, then stopped again. 

“ Mira ! mira, senores ! ” he shouted, evidently in a state of 
great excitement. 

In a moment we were by his side. 

“ By Jove, Carlyon, there’s your Phantom City at last ! ” ex- 
claimed Wildfell. 

We were on the edge of a precipice. Below us stretched a 
thickly- wooded valley in the very heart of the mountains, cleft 
by a brawling stream which descended in a sheet of foam from 
one of the neighboring hills. In the midst of this amphitheatre 
uprose a great mass of buildings, on which the setting sun 
poured a flood of silvery light. 

I stood like one entranced. Could it indeed be the Phantom 
City ? My heart beat wildly, and my emotion was so great that 
I could hardly adjust the field-glass, which I kept always at 
hand. 

The others, gazing alternately at me and the buildings, 
awaited my verdict with an emotion hardly less than my own, 

I took a long look ; then removed the glass from my eyes, 
and looked again. 

“ Kuins ! nothing but ruins ! ” and as I spoke my heart sank, 
and every countenance around me fell, 

I saw shattered columns and broken pyramids, vast buildings, 
magnificent even in decay, grander and more extensive, as it 
seemed to me, than all the temples and palaces of Uxmal and 


LOST. 


51 


Ake and Chichen-Itza put together ; but all in ruins, and not 
one sign of life. 

“ What an awful sell ! ” said Wildfell, dolefully. 

“Not at all,” I answered, with affected cheerfulness, and 
trying to make the best of it. “A slight disappointment, per- 
haps ; but even in disappointment there is encouragement. That 
valley was once inhabited — the home of a civilized community. 
Those buildings were never raised by savages. The Phantom 
City cannot be far off. Next to discovering it, this find is the 
best thing that could have happened. ” 

“ There should be treasure in those ruins,” put in Fernando, 
eagerly. ‘ ‘ I’ll be bound they have never been explored. Shall 
we make for them at once ? ” 

“ No,” I said, coldly ; “it is too late ; they are farther off 
than they look, and there may be Indians there, though I can- 
not see them. We must wait until morning, and go to work 
very cautiously, or we shall, maybe, fall into a trap. ” 

So, after Pedro and the arrieros had surveyed the ground, 
we chose a site for our bivouac, unpacked, lighted a fire in a 
secluded spot, and made our preparations for the night. 

As the sun went down I took “ a departure,” and, when the 
moon rose, “ a lunar,” in order to determine our position, which 
I marked on the map I had brought with me. I also took the 
bearings of the ruins, as once in the valley we should be unable 
to see over the tree-tops, and might easily, going by the light 
of Nature, even with the help of Pedro’s w r oodcraft, make a bad 
shot. 


CHAPTER X. 

LOST. 

It took us some time to find a way down the precipice, but, 
this part of our task accomplished, we had little difficulty in 
reaching the ruins. The trees, though of tremendous height, 
were not very close together ; and from their appearance and 
the character of the flora, the frequency of artificial mounds, 
and other indications, I felt certain that we were not in a 
primeval forest— that the valley had once been cleared and cul- 
tivated. 

We went forward with extreme caution, Pedro and the arri- 
eros in front, as usual, the rest of us following, with our rifles 
loaded and unslung, ready for any emergency that might arise. 
But nothing happened. Pedro, quest as he might, could detect 
no suspicious sign : the place was as deserted as it looked. 


52 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


The ruins stood on a monnd, whether wholly natural or arti- 
ficial it was impossible to say, and were reached by an immense 
flight of steps, at least fifty yards long. Mounting these with 
some difficulty — for they were broken and covered with vegeta- 
tion — we found ourselves on a vast platform or terrace, on 
which stood a long range of shattered and dismantled, yet still 
gigantic, columns, once, probably, the supports of some Cyclo- 
pean temple or palace. Farther on were great houses with 
roofs still almost intact, flowers and plants growing all over 
them, the walls outside richly carved and ornamented with 
human figures, and inside bearing traces of mural paintings 
and hieroglyphic inscriptions. The biggest building of all cov- 
ered, as I calculated, an area of more than four thousand 
square yards ; there was a square pyramidal tower, some forty 
feet high, out of which grew a huge tree at least a hundred feet 
higher ; and as the ruins spread far into the forest, we were 
evidently on the site of a once-extensive town, which had pos- 
sibly been the capital of a populous and powerful state. 

“ Gad ! ” exclaimed Wildfell, “ this maybe the Phantom City 
after all. It looks ghostly enough for anything.” 

The same thought had struck me. Was it not conceivable 
that the legend might have survived, though the city had per- 
ished ; and that Dominick’s cura and others, catching a glimpse 
of these ruins from the highest of yonder mountains, had cre- 
ated the shining walls, the lake, the island, and the cultivated 
fields, by the force of their own imaginations ? 

“ I do not think so,” was my answer, after a moment’s reflec- 
tion. “This place has been dead and buried, hidden from 
human ken, for centuries. The legend, however old, still lives, 
and is always receiving new confirmation. The tame Indians 
believe in it most devoutly — ask Pedro and the arrieros — and 
they are always more or less in communication with their un- 
conquered brethren. The legend relates to an existing, inhab- 
ited, aboriginal city, which this is certainly not. ” 

“ Carried unanimously. You talk like a book, Doctor. You 
are going farther, then ? ” 

“ Undoubtedly. We are a long way from the Phantom City 
yet, I fear.” 

“So do I,” returned Wildfell, grimly; “a very long way. 
However, let it be as you say. But had we not better stop here 
a day or two ? It seems to be a nice quiet place ; we stand in 
need of rest, and it will be quite a novelty to sleep with a roof 
over our heads.” 

“By all means. Pedro and the arrieros shall clear out a 
corner of the palace, and we will sling our hammocks there, and 
make ourselves as comfortable as circumstances will permit,” 


LOST. 


53 


After giving Pedro his instructions we continued our ramble 
about the ruins, then went to the stream we had seen from 
above — which once on a time must have washed the city walls 
— had a bathe, and came back greatly refreshed. 

The Indians had done their work well — lighted a fire, impro- 
vised a table, fitted up our hammocks, and, last but not least, 
found some bananas and yams, and, as Fernando was lucky 
enough to kill a buck close to the ruins, we had an unusually 
luxurious supper. 

But neither the Indians nor the mestizos would on any account 
consent to sleep in the ruins, which, they said, were sure to be 
haunted, like all such places, by the spirits of their former in- 
habitants, and all except Pedro, whom I persuaded to stay with 
us, slung their hammocks outside, under the trees. 

Night brought with it the explanation of these superstitious 
fears. I no longer wondered that the ruins were deserted, and 
that the Indians refused to remain within their walls after sun- 
set. I experienced a few qualms myself ; so, I believe, did 
AVildfell ; and, judging by Gomez’s invocations of his patron 
saint and Fernando’s oaths, our companions must have been 
in a state of mortal terror. As for Pedro, he stayed where he 
was, simply because he was too frightened even to run away. 

The palace appeared to be enchanted. As the moonbeams 
struggled faintly through the crevices in the walls, the broken 
vine-covered columns took all sorts of w T eird and fantastic 
shapes ; tiny winged lamps seemed to float in the air, first like 
fiery sparks, then with a fugitive brightness which lost itself in 
a train of light. At the same time, undefinable sounds pro- 
ceeded from all parts of the wood — not awesome like the cries 
of nocturnal birds and the roar of wild beasts, but soft and 
sweet like the warbling of birds, and as melodious and mys- 
terious as the music of a heavenly choir. But almost every 
moment the sounds varied. Now they were as the tinklings of 
a silver bell or a plaintive voice calling in the distance, then as 
the rustling of leaves in a rising storm, next as sighs or sobs 
that seemed to come from the roof of the palace. Again, they 
were like a thousand gentle whisperings, a thousand little 
cadences, as if the genii of the ruins, or the spirits of their for- 
mer possessors, were chanting songs of praise and celebrating 
in a universal concert the wonders of Nature and the magnifi- 
cence of the night. 

But no harm came of it all ; none of the unseen songsters 
gave other token of their presence ; the sounds which at first 
so much alarmed lulled us at last to sleep, and when we awoke 
in the morning all was bright and cheerful. The old palace 
was flooded with sunshine, humming-birds flew among the 


54 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


vines and circled round the columns, green and purple dragon- 
flies darted about in rapid and capricious flight, the woodpecker 
began his ringing strokes on the trunks of decaying trees, and 
the whole forest became full of the sights and sounds of life 
and motion. 

“What do you think of it all — queer, wasn’t it?” said the 
American, as he rolled lazily out of his hammock. “ Weren’t 
you scared? I know I was, at first. Who are they — those 
musicians, I mean ? And what could those lights be ? ” 

“ Well, I am by no means sure. But if you ask my candid 
opinion, I should say that the lights were fire-flies, and the sing- 
ers either frogs or pigeons, or both.” 

“ Come, now, that won’t wash. Frogs can sing, I know, but 
they cannot make such a heavenly concert as we heard last 
night. Say you don’t know, like a man.” 

“ Well, if it was not frogs, I don’t know.” 

This closed the discussion for the time, and though it was 
re-opened afterwards, and we listened and watched night after 
night, we never succeeded in clearing up the mystery. 

While Wildfell and I explored the ruins, or rambled in the 
forest, Fernando and the mestizos were hunting after hidden 
treasure, and to my great surprise they made a big find. By 
clearing away a quantity of rubbish they uncovered the entrance 
to the vaults underneath the palace, where they discovered a 
sort of cave or grotto, which seemed to have been the strong 
room of its previous owners. It contained nothing in the shape 
of coin, but was literally full of gold and silver vessels and 
ornaments, gold-hilted swords, golden helmets, and plates of 
the precious metals, which appeared to have formed part of 
suits of armor. 

The excitement produced by this discovery, though natural, 
was unfortunate. All, even Wildfell, were eager to make fur- 
ther explorations, and set to work digging and searching with 
as much energy as if there were a mint hard by where they 
could convert their finds into current coin without trouble, 
and a bank in which they could lodge the proceeds to their 
credit. 

“ What will you do with these things ? ” I asked. “You can- 
not take them with you.” 

“We will try,” said Fernando. “ We can each carry some- 
thing, and it is worth a little trouble to be rich for life.” 

Argument was useless ; nobody would listen to me. Except 
Pedro, who looked very grave, and said that if we stayed much 
longer the Choles would certainly be upon us, everybody seemed 
to have gone mad. They were grubbing (with sticks and rudely- 
fashioned wooden spades) and scratching and rooting about the 


LOST. 


55 


ruins from morning till night. I spoke of danger, urged the 
object of our expedition ; I begged of them to pack up all the 
gold they thought they could carry, and let us be gone. 

I might as well have spoken to the wind. For all that ap- 
peared to the contrary, they had resolved to stay where they 
were for the term of their natural lives, and I was beginning to 
think that I should have to go in search of the Phantom City 
alone, when an incident occurred that left me no option. 

As it happens, I am somewhat of an ornithologist, and I had 
long been trying to “spot,” and, if possible, capture a bird 
whose richly musical notes were always heard at daybreak — 
seldom at any other time — when one morning, on rising from 
my hammock, and strolling into the forest, I thought I saw him 
on the branch of a tree. After listening a few minutes, to make 
sure that it was the one I wanted, I fetched my gun. When I 
got back the bird had flown, but as I could still hear him I fol- 
lowed in the direction of the sound, and as often as he changed 
his position I kept on following, in my eagerness taking little 
heed which way I went. In the end, after an hour’s chase, I 
lost him, and being reminded by certain internal sensations that 
I had not broken my fast, I turned round and shaped my course, 
as I supposed, for the ruins. 

But though I walked rapidly I seemed to get no nearer, and 
when, on looking at my watch, I found that a full hour had 
passed since I lost the bird, and yet could see no sign of the 
ruins, I knew that I had missed my way — that I was lost in the 
forest. I noticed, too, that the character of the ground was 
more broken, the vegetation different from any I had seen 
before. The wood was free from undergrowth, too, and im- 
mense trees with pyramidal trunks overshadowed a multitude 
of brilliant-berried coffee trees, relics of former cultivation, 
which I saw now for the first time. 

Yes, I was lost ! There could be no mistake about it. My 
first impulse was to curse my own folly .and imprudence. It was 
the first time I had ventured far into the forest without either 
blazing trees as a guide to my way back, or observing, by my 
compass, the direction I was taking. True, I had my compass 
in my pocket, but as I had not gone straight — might, for any- 
thing I knew, have made a complete circuit — it was of no use. 
Whether I went forward or backward, east, west, north, or 
south, I might be equally wrong. 

What was to be done ? 

After some thought, I decided to climb a tree and try if I could 
not get a sight of the ruins. I acted on the idea at once — climbed 
one of the tallest, a very monarch of the forest, fully a hundred 
and fifty feet high, if it was a yard. All I could see was an 


56 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


ocean of verdure which stretched to the horizon, and seemed 
limitless. Yet the ruins, hidden as they were in the wood, 
might be no more than a mile away ! To see them I should 
have to mount five times as high. But not having wings, this 
was out of the question. 

What should I do next ? How extricate myself from the 
scrape into which my heedlessness had brought me ? 

The worst thing I could do was to get frightened, lose my 
presence of mind, and act at random. Whatever befell, I 
must keep cool. So I descended the tree, sat me down at the 
foot of it, took out my pipe and had a smoke. By the time it 
was finished I had resolved on a fixed plan of action, which 
I proceeded to put into immediate execution. 

I selected the spot where I was as a point of departure — 
the centre of a circle, as it were — marked it by slicing with my 
machete the bark of the big tree and piling at its base a heap 
of stones. As I had only been walking two hours, I could not be 
more than that distance from the ruins at the outside. Hence, if I 
walked two hours towards every cardinal point in turn, I should 
be sure to strike the ruins sooner or later ; for they were so ex- 
tensive and so near that it would not be necessary to attempt the 
impossible feat of doing every point of the compass. To do 
even the four points, reckoning them at four hours apiece 
(going and returning), and one at two, would occupy me fully 
fourteen hours, if I never rested a moment, by which time it 
would be long past dark. On the other hand, it was quite pos- 
sible that I might succeed at the first or second attempt, to say 
nothing of the likelihood that Pedro or some of the others would 
come to look for me ; in which event, even though I should not 
see them, their shouts would give me a clue to their whereabouts. 

So after plucking and eating a few bananas, which by reason 
of their succulence are both food and drink, I started on my 
first trip, walking due south, and “ blazing ” a tree every two 
or three yards as I wen^ along. No sign of the palace w T as vis- 
ible in that direction, and when I got back to my point of de- 
parture it had gone two o’clock. But as I had not expected any 
thing better, I was not much disappointed, and began my sec- 
ond journey in good spirits, walking fast, so that if I failed 
again I might be back at my starting-place before dark. 

I did fail again, and ten minutes after J reached the big 
tree daylight disappeared as suddenly as if a veil had been 
dropped between earth and sun. 

I lay down on the ground, utterly exhausted, for the day had 
been exceedingly hot, and bananas, though refreshing, are not 
very nutritious. There was nothing for it but to stay where I 
was, as walking about in the forest when I could not see my 


LOST. 


57 


hand, much less my compass, would have been sheer insanity. 
I knew that between one and two there would be a full moon, 
when I might see my way and try east and west, as I had al- 
ready tried north and south. 

After listening a few minutes, as I had frequently done 
during the day, for the possible shouts of my companions, I fell 
fast asleep, despite my efforts to keep awake ; for it is not ex- 
actly a prudent proceeding to sleep after dark in a wood haunted 
by wild animals, both creeping and four-footed. 

I awoke with a start and a sense of indescribable terror. The 
forest was filled with strange and unearthly noises — some like 
those I had heard in the ruins, others still more weird and 
terrifying. Now a soft and gentle cooing, drowned the next 
minute by long yells of anguish, as if somewhere in the 
depths of the forest lost souls were suffering the tortures of the 
damned ; then a momentary silence broken by the fierce roar 
of jaguar or puma, and followed by the dismal screech of some 
nocturnal bird of prey. 

I struck a light and looked at my watch. As the match flared 
up for a second I saw a huge frog, as big as a kitten, staring at 
me with stolid eyes, and a deadly nahayuca glided past my feet 
and disappeared in the darkness. 

I had still two hours to pass in this pandemonium ! 

Poets prate of the ecstasy of being alone with Nature. Let 
them try a forest on the Cordilleras of Guatemala after dark, 
and see how they like that ! 

It was not the first night by a good many that I had passed in 
a forest, but it was the first I had passed alone and without 
fire. I had never before felt so completely cut off from my 
kind, so utterly lonesome and helpless and — there is no use 
denying it — so much afraid. Though in one sense free as the 
air, I was held by invisible fetters, and as much a prisoner as 
if I had been buried deep in one of the dungeons kept by the 
Russian Czar for the entertainment of Jiis loving subjects. The 
darkness was so dense that I could not walk five yards without 
risk of running foul of some obstacle, tripping over a tree-root, 
or setting my foot on a venomous snake. There was danger 
even in stretching out my hand, and I might any moment be 
pounced on by a jaguar or attacked by a drove of the fierce 
wild peccaries of the woods. 

But two hours are not an eternity. The moon rose at last, 
pouring into the glade a flood of golden light, only inferior to 
that of day, and with a sense of thankfulness and relief too 
deep for words I got up, stretched my stiffened limbs, and 
started straightway on my third journey in search of the ruins 
— making this time for the east. 


58 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


CHAPTER XI. 

ALONE. 

“At last ! thank Heaven, at last !” I shouted, as, after an 
hour’s swift walking, I saw before me one of the mounds I had 
noticed on our arrival at the ruins. 

In my eagerness I began to run, for now I knew my way, and 
had no longer need either to look at my compass or blaze trees. 
A few minutes later I was within the precincts of the palace, 
which I entered by one of the many gaps in the walls. I quite 
expected to find my companions up and waiting for me, and to 
hear that a part of the day, at least, had been spent in seeking 
me in the forest. But they did not even show a light ; all were 
seemingly fast asleep ; and, hurt and mortified by their indif- 
ference and neglect, I crept silently into my hammock, and so 
great was my fatigue that, despite my vexation, I fell at once 
into a deep and dreamless slumber. 

When I awoke it was full daylight, and knowing from the 
silence of the forest that it must be near noon, I saw without 
surprise that all the hammocks were vacant. Wildfell and the 
others had doubtless got up long since, and were now busy with 
their treasure-hunting. 

“ Yet surely,” I thought, “ Pedro must be somewhere about. 
If all the others have gone mad with greed, he at any rate has 
kept his senses — and I want some breakfast. Where is he, I 
wonder ? Pedro ! Pedro ! Hang the fellow ! where can he be ? 
I suppose he has forgotten all about me, like the rest. They 
must have made another find, and can think about nothing else. 
I will go and see. I wish we had never seen this confounded 
place. It will be our ruin yet.” 

With that I slipped lazily out of my hammock, sauntered 
slowly to the other end of the palace, and picked my way down 
the great flight of steps at the principal entrance, for they were 
covered with brambles and full of holes. 

Strange ! I hear no voices. I see nothing of any of them. 
Where on earth can they be ? 

“ Hallo there ! Pedro ! Gomez ! Where are you?” 

By this time I was close to the place which the arrieros and 
mestizos had chosen for their night-quarters, and run up, against 
one of the walls, a sort of lean-to shed, roofed with plantain 
leaves, under which they had slung their hammocks. 

As I shouted, two hideous turkey-buzzards rose out of the 
bushes and flew heavily into the forest. 


ALONE. 


59 


“ What on earth ” 

And a great fear came over me, for I knew that these creatures 
always follow in the track of death. I pushed my way through 
the bushes, and there, before the hut, I found more vultures, 
which flew away as I neared them, and four lifeless bodies — the 
bodies of four men almost denuded of flesh, their faces stripped 
to the bone, and their clothes in tatters. Though the poor 
wretches were disfigured past recognition, I felt sure that the 
remains were those of Hoss and Boss and the two arrieros. 

The cause of their death was only too evident. They had 
been surprised and killed by the Chole Indians, either just as 
they rose from their hammocks or as they were about to turn in 
for the night. All had beeh mortally wounded by arrows. 
One victim had been hit in the eye, another in the region of the 
heart, a third in the side, a fourth in the back. 

It was several minutes before I could take my eyes from the 
terrible sight and collect my thoughts. 

Where were the others — Wildfell, Gomez, Fernando, and 
Pedro ! Had they, too, fallen, like these poor fellows, without 
being able to strike a blow for their lives ? They were not in 
the palace. Could they have been surprised while searching 
for that thrice-cursed treasure ? 

Sick with apprehension, I hurried to the place where they had 
last been exploring— the foot of the great tower. 

Not there ! 

I next made the complete round of the ruins, looking every- 
where, always with the same result. Then I returned to the 
palace, of which I resolved to make a thorough search, feeling 
sure that it was there, if anywhere, I should find a clue to the 
mystery. The first thing I noticed was that all the arms and 
nearly all the ammunition were missing, so were the palates 
except one (which, lying in a remote corner, had probably been 
overlooked). On closely examining the floor I could detect 
prints of naked feet, and I picked up an arrow which was cer- 
tainly not there before. It was clear that the Choles had been 
here also. Yet, look as I would, I could discover neither trace 
of blood nor signs of a struggle. 

How was this ? Were the four whites taken prisoners, or had 
they escaped ? Neither supposition seemed very probable. It 
was hard to believe that Wildfell, Gomez, and Fernando, to 
say nothing of Pedro, would yield without a struggle, and still 
harder to think that they could escape from a horde of fleet In- 
dians, who were as much at home in the forest as the jaguars 
that lurked in its recesses and the monkeys that swarmed on 
the branches. Considering all these things, I could come to no 
other conclusion than that my unfortunate companions had 


60 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


been seized while lying in their hammocks, and overpowered 
and bound before they had time to think of resistance. The 
Choles must have stolen upon them literally like thieves in the 
night. 

But why had they killed Hoss and Boss and the arrieros and 
saved the others alive ? This part of the riddle I was unable to 
read. It would have been just as easy for the Indians to cap- 
ture or kill eight as four. 

And when had these events happened ? Under ordinary cir- 
cumstances I might have formed a tolerably correct idea from 
an examination of the bodies. But they had been so maltreated 
by the turkey-buzzards that there was hardly anything left to 
examine. Yet indications were* not entirely wanting. As the 
victims lay so near their night-quarters, and the other four were 
beyond doubt seized in the palace, the time must necessarily 
have been either early in the morning or late at night ; and it 
could not have been night, because, as I well knew, the dark- 
ness after sunset was too intense to permit the savages to take 
aim with their arrows. It must therefore have been morning, 
and very shortly after I went after the bird. I had left them all 
fast asleep ; and a few minutes after the arrieros and mestizos 
(always the first to get up) rose, and probably before the others 
awakened, the Choles were upon them. 

That bird had saved my life. 

Just then, however, I did not feel very thankful for the boon 
— I was too much overcome with horror and -grief, and I bit- 
terly regretted having induced these eight men to take part 
in so desperate an enterprise ; above all, the arrieros , who 
had come so reluctantly. True, the others, save Pedro, had 
courted their fate by neglecting my warnings, and I was thus 
in a measure, so far as they were concerned, absolved from 
blame. But this consideration, though it might soothe my con- 
science, could not lessen my sorrow. Wildfell, Gomez, and 
Pedro were good men and true ; we had been so much together, 
and I had got to know them so well, that their loss affected me 
quite as much as if they had been old and long-tried friends. 

Yes, loss, for nothing was more certain than that I should 
never see them again, and I was haunted by a terrible fear that 
the Choles had saved my companions alive in order to torture 
them to death. More than once the idea occurred to me of try- 
ing to make out the trail and following them. But how could 
I hope to overtake a detachment, of Indians familiar with the 
forest, who had more than twenty-four hours’ start of me, and 
what could I do if I did overtake them ? 

All day long I wandered aimlessly and dejected about the 
ruins, and it was only when night fell and I lay down in my 


ALONE. 


61 


hammock that I became sufficiently composed to look my po- 
sition fairly in the face, and decide what course it behooved me 
to adopt. 

One thing was quite clear — I must make a move. The Choles 
might come back, and, whether they did or not, nothing was to 
be gained by remaining one moment longer in these ill-omened 
ruins. But whither should I go ? Back again by the road I 
had come ! No ! A thousand times no ! The very fact that 
my enterprise had entailed so much trouble, and cost so many 
lives, rendered it more imperative than ever that I should per- 
severe, make at least one more effort to discover the object of 
my quest. Success justifies everything ; failure, though it may 
result from misfortune, is more often the outcome of weakness 
and irresolution. 

As for the danger, it would be quite as dangerous to advance 
as to retreat, and by going forward I might, even if I did not 
reach the Phantom City, discover some clue to its whereabouts. 

So, early on the following morning, after taking a bath in the 
mountain stream, I rolled up my hammock and my patate, 
strapped them to my back, shouldered my gun, and plunged 
once more into the forest. 

I had unfortunately very little powder and shot, my supply 
consisting only of the few cartridges in my pocket, and a few 
more which the Choles had overlooked. I put all the totoposte 
that was left carefully into my pack, resolving to use it only in 
the last extremity ; for the time might come when I should be 
unable to obtain either fruit or game. 

The first day I made fair progress. The forest was almost 
free from undergrowth. I had neither much cutting to do nor 
many detours to make, and when I halted for the night, an 
hour before sunset, I reckoned that I had done something like 
twenty miles. Having a keen recollection of my recent experi- 
ence, I made such arrangements as I thought would enable me 
to pass the night in comparative peace and security. Light a 
fire I dared not, for there could be little doubt that I was in the 
Chole country, and as likely as not within a mile or two of one 
of their villages. So, after clearing a space with my machete , 
I slung my hammock on the branches of a huge cantamon , 
placed my gun within reach, and as soon as it was dark turned 
in and slept until the moon rose. Then I got up and resumed 
my tramp. I was still on falling ground, and likely to be so for 
some time ; for marching, as before, in a south-westerly direc- 
tion, I was descending the Cordilleras very gradually. In this 
way I avoided the hot and humid plains of the tierra caliente, 
which lay lower down, and neared the region where, in my im- 
aginary chart, I had placed the Phantom City. 


62 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


So far I had subsisted on bananas ; but uncooked bananas, 
besides being too tasteless and monotonous to be pleasant, are 
not sufficiently nourishing to keep up a man’s strength under 
the strain of hard work, and I felt that, unless I got something 
more concentrated and nitrogenous, I should soon break down. 
I don’t like killing monkeys, they are so like human-kind, and 
it is pitiful to see them die ; moreover, the report of my gun 
might bring upon me unseen enemies. But necessity has no 
law, and it would be better to risk death by a Chole arrow than 
to fall ill and, perchance, perish miserably by the way. Several 
monkeys were hanging about on the trees, eying me curiously, 
and probably wondering to what branch of the great Simiadse 
family I belonged. Choosing one of the biggest, I brought him 
down with a single shot, and to my great satisfaction the creat- 
ure died without a struggle. 

Having killed my monkey, the next thing was to cook him, to 
which end it would be necessary to kindle a fire, and I decided 
to perform the operation at high noon, when the Choles would 
be the least likely to favor me with their attentions. In this I 
succeeded to admiration ; the monkey was done to a turn. I 
roasted at the same time some bananas, and after enjoying an 
excellent dinner and having a good rest, I packed up the rem- 
nants of my feast and hied me onward. 

I had not gone far when, happening to glance over my 
shoulder, I was startled to see, creeping stealthily some two- 
score yards behind me, a black jaguar of fierce aspect and por- 
tentous size. I wheeled round as promptly as a soldier on 
parade, and as I did so the great cat slunk into the thicket. 
Then I went on again, taking care to look back every few min- 
utes, and I very soon became convinced that the jaguar was 
stalking me. When I faced him he vanished ; but the moment 
I moved on he followed in my track. I dare say he had been 
attracted in the first instance by the smell of my roast monkey, 
and probably smelt it still. 

Without being alarmed, I was uneasy. Unless cornered or 
rendered desperate by hunger or hurts, a jaguar seldom attacks 
a man openly. It has, however, no objection to take him by 
surprise, or tackle him when he sleeps. Herein lay my danger. 
Jf the creature kept following me — and I had heard of jaguars 
following solitary travelers for days together — what was I to 
do ? Except while awake and on my guard, I should never be 
safe. However high I might sling my hammock, I should be in 
danger ; for the American tiger can climb a tree, however 
smooth. A fire might be some protection, but only so long as 
it was well kept up, and even if there were no Choles to take 
into account, I could not sleep and keep up a good fire at th§ 


ALONE. 


63 


same time. With a rifle I could have made short work of the 
beast, but wounding it with small shot would insure an imme- 
diate attack, and in a “rough-and-tumble” with that black 
jaguar I should be likely to come off second best. 

As long as daylight lasted I had certain evidence — that of my 
own eyes — that the creature was keeping up the chase, and I 
felt sure that when night came it would not be far off. 

Though I took the precaution to sling my hammock to a slen- 
der branch that could not well have borne a tiger’s weight, I did 
not sleep a wink. I was always fancying that I could hear my 
pursuer prowling about, and see his eyes blazing in the dark- 
ness. 

And probably not without reason, for I had not walked a 
mile next morning when I saw him, creeping after me as be- 
fore, and, as before, he slunk into the bushes when I turned 
round and faced him. This sort of thing was becoming un- 
bearable. The sensation of being stalked is the reverse of 
pleasant, and I felt that if I did not soon get rid of the brute, 
he would soon get rid of me. Sooner or later I must sleep, and 
then — — 

There was only one way, and when I reached a place where 
the ground was pretty level and the forest open, I lay down be- 
hind a big tree, taking care to have my gun and machete close 
at hand. A few minutes later I saw the tiger following in my 
track with his nose to the ground, just like a hound hunting a 
cold scent. 

I remained as still as a mouse until he was well within range, 
and then, letting fly right at his head with both barrels, seized 
my machete and sprang to my feet. 

The next moment the enraged brute, terribly peppered about 
the face and half blinded with his own blood, came at me with 
a roar. As he sprang I struck him hard with my machete , 
splitting his skull down to the neck, and we rolled on the 
ground together. 

I got up not much the worse, though one of his claws had 
rather lacerated my shoulder ; and thinking his skin might 
possibly prove useful, I took it from him, and continued my 
journey with an easier mind, 


64 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


CHAPTER XII. 

IN THE RAPIDS. 

Eight days after leaving the ruins, I reached the banks of a 
broad and swift river. It was time, for as I left the Cordilleras 
behind me, and drew nearer to the tierra caliente , the forest 
again became less open, the undergrowth denser and more 
tangled, the temperature higher, and I could only make head- 
way slowly and by dint of severe and exhausting toil. My 
strength was beginning to fail me, my machete was fast wearing 
out, and I was forced to admit that, alone and without help, I 
could not possibly go on ; that for the time, at least, I must 
abandon my quest, and give up my hope of finding the Phantom 
City. 

As I reached this conclusion I chanced to look skyward, and 
there, high above the tree-tops, a great condor, which had 
evidently just crossed the Cordilleras, was winging his flight 
towards the south-west — exactly the direction I desired to take, 
and where, as I believed, lay the mysterious country which I 
was beginning to fear I should never see. 

“In an hour, perhaps in half an hour,” I thought, “that 
bird may be flying over the Phantom City. It is possible that 
he sees it even now. If I could only borrow his wings ! By 
Jove ! Why should not I do it in a balloon ? ” 

The idea seemed so wild and absurd that I laughed aloud, and 
turned my thoughts to the accomplishment of the scheme which 
I had already devised — floating down the river on a raft. What 
river it was, or whither it went, I had no means of knowing ; 
probably either the Usamacinta itself, or one of its tributaries. 
There was just a possibility that it might run past the Phantom 
City ; if not, then to some place in Guatemala or Yucatan, 
whence I could make a fresh start or return to England. As to 
that, however, I should have to take my chance. It was a case 
of Hobson’s choice. The current being too swift to be ascended 
without a boat and oars, I had no alternative but to swim with 
the stream, both literally and metaphorically. 

So I set about making a raft — not a very difficult undertak- 
ing. I cut a number of logs, made them of equal length, and 
fastened them together with lianas, which, when dry, bind as 
firmly as iron wire. Then I stiffened and strengthened the 
structure with cross pieces, rigged up the jaguar’s skin as an 
awning, cut a long forked pole for steering and poling, and the 
job was finished, 


IN THE RAPIDS. 


65 


I did this in two days, and on the third I launched my bark 
on the unknown river, letting it take me whither it would. Its 
course was tortuous in the extreme, sometimes running due 
south, until I thought it would end in the Pacific ; then, bend- 
ing eastward, as if it would take me straight to the Atlantic. So 
frequent were its twists and turns, that without my compass I 
should have been at a loss to know, even vaguely, where my 
journey was likely to terminate, and as my sextant was one of 
the things taken by the Choles, I had no means of ascertaining 
my position. 

I traveled only by day and light of moon. An hour or so be- 
fore sunset I generally moored my raft to a tree, and slung my 
hammock to a branch which overhung the stream. I was thus 
always ready to be off on the least alarm. 

As touching food, I was now in a land of plenty. The forest 
abounded with birds and monkeys, and the water with fish. I 
had a few hooks in my pocket-book, a line was easily made, and 
whatever might be the bait, I was never long in getting a bite. 

The scenery was superb ; the stream flowed through an um- 
brageous alley of gigantic trees, so lofty that they seemed at 
times to reach the sky ; flowers of exquisite loveliness were re- 
flected in the bosom of the silent river ; vines trailed every- 
where in the most bewildering confusion ; old boughs, some of 
them as thick as young trees, closely intertwined and covered 
with bulbous plants and pendent flowers, hung over the water, 
true aerial gardens of Nature’s own making. All this made up 
a picture which in richness and variety of coloring, splendor, 
and luxuriance of vegetation, surpassed in its beauty the wildest 
dreams of the most vivid imagination. 

But the loneliness of that serene river was unspeakably op- 
pressive ; I would gladly have given all its beauty for a single 
grasp of Wildf ell’s friendly hand, a word from Don Gomez, or 
a glimpse of Pedro’s honest face. 

What had become of them ? Had they, as I feared, been tor- 
tured and killed, or did they still live, the prisoners and slaves 
of their captors ? These questions continually recurred to me, 
and the idea of trying to reach the hidden city in a balloon, 
which, at the outset, I had dismissed as impracticable and ab- 
surd, began to take shape and substance in my thoughts. True, 
it was a most forlorn hope, yet it seemed to be the only chance 
now left of accomplishing my purpose. After all that had come 
to pass I could not ask anybody else to share in the perils of a 
second expedition. Undertaken alone, and on foot, it would 
be an act of sheerest folly and a predestined failure. But in a 
balloon I might manage without help ; a fair wind would carry 
me in a few hours farther than I could walk in as many weeks, 
5 


66 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


and whether I succeeded or failed the risk would be mine, and 
mine only. Everything considered, moreover, it did not seem 
that an aerial voyage would be either more dangerous or more 
difficult than a land journey, and I had now two motives— the 
desire to find the Phantom City and the hope of hearing some- 
thing of my lost companions. 

After long cogitation I resolved that if I got safely to my 
journey’s end I would try and put the project into execution. 

Since leaving the ruins I had seen no sign of human presence. 
But this did not surprise me. The Indians could not be every- 
where ; in a region so thickly wooded they would congregate 
chiefly in the neighborhood of their villages, and keep to the 
tracks made by themselves, and those parts of the country 
with which they were most familiar. I had also heard that they 
were indifferent boatmen, and greatly preferred land to water. 
All the same, I kept a sharp look-out, especially at points where 
the river was joined by its tributaries. I began to have doubts 
as to the former being the Usamacinta, for on the third day of 
my voyage it ran into another river, equally large ; and “which 
was which ” I had no means of ascertaining. 

The two combined formed a noble and picturesque stream, 
on whose meandering waters my raft floated at the rate of from 
two to four miles an hour. Its course, though devious, was 
due east. There could be little doubt that I was nearing the 
confines of the Known, and the farther I went the more appre- 
hensive I became as to what might befall me later on, for the 
Lacandones, as I well knew, kept a strict watch at the entrance 
to their domain. It was evident, too, that, whatever might be 
the name or the source of the first stream I encountered, that 
now, at least, I was on the Usamacinta. The wooded heights to 
the north were unquestionably the lower slopes of the Cordil- 
leras, and, instead of flowing tranquilly between level banks, 
tne river was forcing its way through deep gorges and sweeping 
past lofty bluffs. The channel grew narrower, the current 
more impetuous ; every hour brought me nearer to the moun- 
tain gap by which the great river reaches the plains of Tobasco 
and the Gulf of Mexico. 

The navigation of my raft had, so far, presented no diffi- 
ficulty. True, it was rather a clumsy concern, but I could al- 
ways control it with my make-shift boat-hook, and to pull up 
I had only to throw overboard the big stone which I used as an 
anchor. But where the river narrowed, and consequently deep- 
ened, this resource, owing to the shortness of my rope, failed 
me, and the current being now extremely rapid, I feared that 
if I once got into the middle of the stream I might be swept 
onward without power either to stop or steer. 


IN THE RAPIDS. 


67 


In these circumstances I thought it the part of prudence to 
hug the shore, using my pole now as a pusher, now as a rudder, 
occasionally hooking it to a root or a branch, always managing, 
one way or another, to keep near the bank. 

Going on in this style, I one day reached a small creek, and, 
feeling tired, pushed my raft into its smoother water, let go my 
stone, and was lying down on my tiger-skin for a few minutes’ 
rest, when, happening to look up stream, I saw, to my horror, 
a large canoe with half a dozen nearly naked Indians on board, 
coming towards me at a great rate. That they meant mischief 
was evident from the fact that all, save one who was paddling, 
were fitting arrows to the big bows with which each was armed. 

Without a moment’s hesitation I cut my cable, and pushed 
the raft into the middle of the stream. I was between the devil 
and the deep sea ; but everything considered, I preferred the 
perils of the one to the tender mercies of the other. 

The canoe was clumsy and lopsided, and as only one man 
was paddling, it went little faster than the raft. Yet, despite 
its comparative slowness, it gained on me ; the distance be- 
tween us rapidly diminished, and it was clear that we should 
soon be at close quarters. 

I laid down my pole, took up my gun, and, kneeling on the 
tiger-skin, prepared to fire so soon as the canoe should be well 
within range. I did not think I had much chance of escap- 
ing ; but, come what might, I was determined not to be taken 
alive. 

At about fifty yards’ distance the Indians let fly at me a 
shower of arrows, but owing to the wobbling of the canoe and 
the movement of the raft, all went wide. I did not reply for a 
couple of minutes, and then, taking deliberate aim at the pad- 
dler, I gave him a dose of small shot slap in the face, and fired 
the second barrel right into the thick of the others. 

Great confusion ensued on board the canoe. The paddler, 
giving a fearful yell, dropped his paddle into the water ; the 
boat, swept round by the current, nearly came to grief. It was 
several minutes before the crew could right her and resume the 
chase. The paddler seemed to be badly hurt ; he laid himself 
down in the bottom of the canoe, and paddled no more. I 
could also see by the gesticulation of his companions, and their 
bleeding faces, that some of them, too, had got pretty well pep- 
pered. They shouted savagely, threatened me with their spears, 
and when they had recovered from their confusion, one of them 
took the place of the prostrate paddler, and the vigor and en- 
ergy of his strokes showed how eager they were to overtake me 
and have their revenge. 

While this was going on I had reloaded my gun with the last 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


cartridges, save two, I possessed, and made ready for the recep- 
tion of my pursuers as before. This time they came on more 
cautiously, displaying as little of their persons as might be, and, 
except the man who was paddling, I could see little more of 
them than the tops of their heads. But this position was not 
particularly favorable for archery practice, and the first arrows 
they shot either stuck in the sides of the raft, or fell into the 
water. 

As for myself, seeing how nearly my ammunition was ex- 
hausted, I resolved to reserve my fire until I could do certain 
execution. I watched the advancing canoe with the closest at- 
tention, waiting for the most propitious moment, and was just 
about to discharge my second broadside, when one of the fellows 
in the fore-part of the canoe raised a loud shout, dropped his 
bow, and seized a paddle. All the others followed his example. 
Thinking they were going to board me, I refrained from firing 
until I could do so with the best effect. To my great surprise, 
however, the savages headed the canoe for the nearest bank, 
paddling as if they were possessed. 

All this time I had been looking up stream, and letting the 
raft take care of itself. 

A swift glance ahead revealed the secret of my enemies’ sud- 
den retreat. The river — now running more impetuously than 
ever — was entering a rocky defile, the sides of which rose sheer 
out of the water fully a thousand feet. We were in the rapids, 
and if the Indians had not stopped where they did, they would 
not have been able to stop at all. 

As for me, I could not have stopped even if I had tried, and 
I did not try. The river and the Indians left me no alternative 
but to go on and take what came, resigning myself to my fate 
with such fortitude as I might be able to muster. Had I been 
sure there was nothing worse to come this would not have been 
very difficult, for though the river ran like a mill-race the water 
was smooth, and nothing could be more delightful than the 
swift, undulating motion of the raft. But for anything I knew, 
and more likely than not, there were rocks and falls ahead, 
which it might be impossible to pass and live. 

Before I was half through the defile a heavy booming sound 
struck on my ear, which justified my worst forebodings. Every 
moment this ominous din grew louder ; every moment the deep 
dark torrent, shut in between frowning rocks, sped on with in- 
creased velocity. I laid me down and clung to the woodwork 
of the raft with the energy of despair. 

A few minutes later the river broadened out and became vio- 
lently agitated, apparently by a fresh wind and the force of in- 
visible currents. The raft was whirled round and round in the 


IN THE RAPIDS. 


69 


seething water until I grew so sick and dizzy that I could hardly 
hold on. 

This lasted for about ten minutes, when, reaching the edge 
of the whirlpool, I was literally spun into smoother water. 

Raising my head, and clearing the water from my eyes, I look 
down the river, now rolling majestically through an avenue of 
nodding palms and lordly forest trees, with stems like the col- 
umns of some great cathedral shining like silver in the sun 
under domes of emerald verdure. 

It is hard, amid all this romantic beauty, to believe that I am 
a helpless waif, hurrying swiftly to destruction. Yet the terrible 
din, growing every moment louder and still louder, tells me 
that the fatal moment is at hand — that my very minutes are 
numbered. And now the stream makes a bend, and I see that 
a mile or so farther on the river disappears, leaps down a chasm 
of unknown depth, above which rises a cloud of mist and spray, 
spanned by a rainbow of exquisite loveliness — emblem of hope 
for the hopeless. 

Nearer and nearer I am borne towards the chasm. 

The uproar is terrific, deafening. I strain my eyes in a vain 
attempt to see through the foam-cloud. I am on the very brink. 
I cling to the raft with all my might ; I breathe a prayer for 
God’s help ; give myself up for lost, and the next moment am 
swept down to unfathomable depths. 

But the instinct of life is strong. When I find myself in deep 
water I strike out with all my strength, for I have parted com- 
pany with the raft — which, by breaking my fall, has saved my 
life — and just as my senses are leaving me I contrive to reach 
the surface and refill my lungs. Then under I go again, only 
to rise again the moment after. I fight on in this way for fully 
half an hour, seeing nothing but foam, hearing nothing but the 
roar of the cataract. Yet all the time I must have been drift- 
ing — going with the stream — for, though the uproar continues, 
the turmoil and tossing gradually cease, and at length, breath- 
less and exhausted, I find myself in smoother water. 

The relief and blessedness of it are past telling. Not so much 
because my life is saved as that I am at peace. The struggle is 
over, and I let myself float gently down the river, looking once 
more at the bright sun and the blue sky, and watching the 
trees glide swiftly by, with a sense of enjoyment intensified by 
the recollection of the terrible ordeal I have just undergone. 

The current is still so rapid that every effort I make to reach 
land is a failure, and I begin to fear that I have passed through 
the peril of the falls only to perish of exhaustion in the water. 
Several times, when almost touching the bank, I am swept back 
into the middle of the stream. 


70 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


At last the river does for me what I could not do for myself 
— throws me ashore, as it rounds a promontory. Crawling out 
of the water, more dead than alive, spent by exertion and over- 
come by mental strain, I lie down in the warm sunshine to 
rest my limbs, dry my rags, and think what I shall do next. 


CHAPTER XIII. 

BACK AGAIN. 

Though the sun was shining, and Nature all loveliness, I 
could not see daylight. Here I was, in an unknown, unin- 
habited country, with nothing in the world but a pair of much- 
worn trousers and a ragged shirt. Raft, machete , gun, shoes, 
hat — all were gone. Even the natives could not go about un- 
covered ; and though, at a pinch, I might improvise a hat out 
of a leaf, I did not see how, without a knife, I could make 
myself any sort of foot-gear, and only those who have tried it 
know the hardship — I had almost said the impossibility — of 
walking unshod over rough ground, among brambles and thorns, 
in a tropical wilderness. 

How far I might be from a human habitation I had no idea, 
neither could I tell whether I was out of the wild Indian terri- 
tory. And where should I find shelter, where obtain food, how, 
weaponless as I was, defend myself from wild animals ? 

One way and another I was undeniably in a pretty tight fix. 
All that I had left was my life ; and though I had been terribly 
buffeted in the water, I had suffered no serious damage, and 
possessed the full use of my limbs. Bad as my case was, it 
might have been worse, and if, as I- hoped, I had got out of the 
Lacandone country and could fall in with a tame Indian, all 
might yet be w T ell. Anyhow, there was no use staying where I 
was ; so, after I had rested myself, I twisted a leaf round my head, 
and set off on a new tour of exploration, picking my way with 
great care, and walking as gingerly as a man with unboiled 
peas in his shoes. But do as I would my feet got terribly cut 
and bruised, becoming at length so painful that if anything less 
than my life had been at stake I should hardly have had the 
resolution to persevere. 

Crossing the promontory where I had landed, I followed the 
river bank (occasionally laving my feet in the water), which was 
hereabouts pretty straight. After limping two or three miles, 
I came to an expanse of beautiful park-like country, the trees 
growing singly and in groups, on ground carpeted with grass 


BACK AGAIN. 


71 


and flowers — a glorious tropical garden. On the other side of 
the river stretched a broad savanna with a background of lux- 
uriant vegetation and wood-crowned heights. 

The scene seemed familiar to me. But I had beheld so many 
like scenes that, after a moment’s pause, I trudged wearily 
on, looking out for bananas, for I felt terribly hungry. Then 
I looked again, and the more I looked the more I felt convinced 
that I had seen it all before. 

“Yes, it is ! No, it is not ! By Jove, it is — the very place 
where we slung our hammocks the night before we started for 
Flores ! The village where we got our horses must be on the 
other side of that clump of mimosa trees. 

“ But I am on the wrong side of the river. Never mind ! I 
will swim it. Better drown than starve.” 

Fortunately the flow was becoming less swift, and, picking a 
place where the stream was broadest, and therefore most shal- 
low and least rapid, I plunged in, and by swimming obliquely, 
and as much against the current as possible, I managed, with 
some difficulty, to fetch the opposite bank. 

An hour later I was at the village. 

How the tame Indians and mestizos stared at me ! And no 
wonder, for, with my long hair and beard, my leaf -covered 
head, bare and bleeding feet, ragged shirt, and dirty trousers, 
I must have looked more like an escaped lunatic than a sane 
Christian. But, without saying a word, to anybody, I went 
straight to the house of the jefe politico (chief magistrate), whose 
acquaintance I had made before my start for Flores, and told 
my tale — or, at any rate, so much of it as I thought necessary. 
I said nothing about the Phantom City, and toned down con- 
siderably the story of my adventures. He looked serious and 
sympathetic when I mentioned the loss of my companions, was 
in no way surprised that I had been pursued by the Lacan- 
dones ; but, though too polite to say so, he evidently dis- 
believed my account of the voyage down the Usamacinta and 
the passage of the falls. 

That, however, was of no moment. I did not want him to 
believe me. I wanted him only to help me to get back to Flores. 
I had a gold piece or two stitched in the waistband of my trou- 
sers — enough to keep me a few days and buy some clothes, but 
not enough to pay the hire of mules and arrieros to Flores. 
But I could promise to pay when we got there, and I asked the 
jefe politico to assist me in making an arrangement on this 
basis. At first he demurred, said it could not be done ; and if 
the men who went with me before had not been willing to go 
with me again, and trust to my promise to pay them when we 
got to Flores, I should have been in an awkward dilemma. 


72 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


However, the business was put through, and, after a good deal 
of tiresome palaver, they agreed to have everything ready for a 
start on the day but one following. 

While this was going on, a fowl, ordered at my suggestion by 
the jefe politico, had been roasting, and I ate every bit of it, 
barring the bones. I next bought a suit of clothes and a pair 
of boots, and they suited me so well that I might easily have 
passed for a Guatemalan cdballero. 

I need not describe the journey, which was a repetition of the 
first, only rather easier, owing to the track having been recently 
traversed. The dear old corregidor received me with open 
arms, and seemed hugely delighted by the fulfillment of his 
prediction. 

“I knew you would come back,” he said. “ You could not 
help it now, could you ? Flores is really so charming, the cli- 
mate so perfect, the senoritas so lovely. You have not forgot- 
ten that tertulia, I’ll be bound. We will have another in honor 
of your return. You left some aching hearts behind you, Sefior 
Don, you and the Senor Americano del Norte. And Senor Don 
Gomez de la Plata y Sombrero, how is he — well, I hope ? ” 

When I told him of the terrible fate that had befallen my 
friends and the arrieros , his countenance fell, and he seemed 
much distressed. 

“How sad! how very sad!” he exclaimed. “But I was 
afraid — I was afraid, when you said you were going to look for 
ruined cities, that you might venture into the wild Indian coun- 
try ; but I knew that, even if I warned you, you would not take 
heed. English caballeros and Americanos del Norte are so 
headstrong. You are the first that ever went so far and lived 
to tell the tale. You owe your life to the favor of Heaven and 
the Holy Virgin, Senor Doctor. The cura shall say masses for 
the souls of your friends and the arrieros. I will charge my- 
self with the expense.” 

“ You think they are dead, then ? ” 

“ There cannot be a doubt of it. When the Choles take pris- 
oners they put them to death with frightful tortures and then 
eat them.” 

‘ ‘ But how can you know this, if, as you say, nobody who 
goes into their country ever comes back ? ” 

‘ ‘ Everybody says the Choles torture and devour their pris- 
oners. Do you think everybody would say so if it were not 
true. It is a great pity. The Senor Americano del Norte — I 
cannot pronounce his name — was a fine man, though a little ec- 
centric. And Don Gomez, with his guitar and love songs, was 
a noble cdballero. He made a great impression on the hearts of 
our senoritas. He will have many fair mourners. There will 


A NEW DEPARTURE. 


73 


be weeping eyes in Flores to-night. I think we had better not 
have the tertulia this evening, as I intended. We will put it 
off until Sunday. Three days are long enough to mourn. The 
departed would not like it to be longer, I am sure. Life is too short 
to be made miserable by useless regrets. You will be very happy 
in Flores, Senor Doctor. It is a pleasant place. And the 
sefioritas — ah, the senoritas ! But you have seen them. I need 
say no more. And you may have your choice, Senor Doctor. 
The most beautiful will be delighted to become your bride.” 

I expressed, in fitting terms, my sense of the honor he pro- 
posed to confer upon me, but assured him that I had no intention 
of taking to myself a wife just yet — to the worthy corregidor's 
great surprise, for he looked upon a bachelor as something ab- 
normal and monstrous, much as he would have looked upon a 
man who should deliberately refuse to go to heaven. And then 
he inquired, with much concern, whether I would not accept 
the offer he had made me before — settle in Flores, and become 
the physician of the district, promising me, in addition to the 
other inducements already mentioned, a lucrative practice and 
an easy life. 

After thanking him warmly for his kind intentions on my 
behalf, I said that, albeit I could not very well make Flores my 
permanent home, I would stay a pretty long time, and during 
my sojourn I should only be too glad to place such medical and 
surgical skill as I possessed at the disposal of himself and the 
people of his district. The old gentleman, though evidently 
disappointed that I did not accept his proposals without reserve, 
thanked me with effusion for so far complying with his wishes, 
found me lodgings in one of the best houses in the village, and 
got me everything I asked. I need hardly say that I asked for 
nothing he could not easily procure. 


CHAPTER XIY. 

A NEW DEPARTURE. 

My next proceeding was to write to a scientific friend in Lon- 
don to order me a balloon and a net (if he could not get them 
ready-made) of certain dimensions, a few lengths of iron piping, 
india-rubber tubing, an electro-magnetic machine, a field-glass, 
a small telescope, arms, and some other things. All these were 
to be sent securely packed to Belize, which place I found could 
be reached in sixteen days — ten by river and six by road — and 
whither, when the time came, I proposed to go myself to arrange 


74 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


for their safe transport to Flores. I also wrote to Dominick (of 
whose thousand pounds a considerable balance still remained), 
giving an account of my proceedings, and tilling him of my 
new project. I begged him, however, to observe the strictest 
secrecy, for I had resolved not only to make my aerial voyage 
alone, but to acquaint nobody (save my backer and paymaster) 
with my purpose and proposed destination. 

The arrieros who had accompanied me to Flores undertook 
to forward my letters to Carmen, and I took the precaution to 
send duplicates by a trader who was going to Merida. 

I could not expect answers much under two or three months, 
even if there should be no delays ; and the balloon and etceteras 
might not arrive at Belize for twice two months. This, however, 
was rather an advantage than a drawback, for I stood in need of 
rest, and required ample time for preparation. My scheme had 
not yet been worked out in detail, and I foresaw that I should 
have much to do and many difficulties to overcome. 

The balloon would reach me in a very incomplete state. I 
should have to make the car, fix up some sort of apparatus for 
producing gas, prepare the minds of the unsophisticated Flore- 
seros for an experiment which, as likely as not, they would re- 
gard as uncanny and diabolic ; and obtain the corregidor'' s 
co-operation in my enterprise without disclosing its true object — 
for, if fully enlightened, he would of a surety throw every 
possible impediment in my way, perhaps think himself justified 
in hindering by force the consummation of so mad a design. 

But he was a dear, credulous old man, with a profound re- 
spect for science, of whose later achievements some hazy and 
exaggerated accounts had reached him, and he had a vague 
idea that there was hardly anything beyond the power of science 
to accomplish, except, perhaps, raising the dead and preventing 
earthquakes. Of earthquakes, like nearly all who have beheld 
their effects, he stood in mortal terror. Slight shocks were 
occasionally felt at Flores ; and though he did not like to con- 
fess it, he was apprehensive that there would one day come to 
pass a frightful catastrophe. I took a base advantage of this 
weakness — if weakness it was — talked learnedly about atmos- 
pheric phenomena, electricity, the earth’s crust, volcanoes, and 
the like, and I suggested that, in the event of an earthquake 
occurring at Flores, a captive balloon might be utilized as an 
“ ark of refuge.” On this I had, of course, to explain what 
captive balloons were like, the manner of their use, and some 
other things. The idea pleased the corregidor much ; and 
when I expressed my willingness to construct a balloon and fly 
it at Flores, his delight knew no bounds, and he promised me 
all the help he could give. 


A NEW DEPARTURE. 


75 


This preliminary difficulty overcome, I had to consider the 
question of gas. My first idea had been to inflate my balloon 
on the Montgolfier system, by heated air ; but that would in- 
volve the necessity of a light, and, apart from the danger this 
would entail, a fire balloon requires much more attention 
than a gas balloon, and as I proposed to travel without com- 
pany, ease of management was absolutely essential. English 
aeronauts generally use coal-gas, which, though not pure hy- 
drogen, answers the purpose. But in Peten there are neither 
coal-mines nor gas-works, and I should have to provide myself 
with the means of flying my balloon as best I could. Hydro 1 
gen exists everywhere — in the air we breathe, the water we 
drink, the wood . we burn. The difficulty was to capture and 
confine, with the limited facilities at my disposal, a sufficient 
quantity of it to carry me over the Cordilleras, and, if need 
were, to the Quesaltenango mountains, on the Pacific coast. 

Pouring sulphuric acid on zinc is perhaps the easiest way 
of making hydrogen, but as I had neither zinc nor sulphuric 
acid, it was not a way I could adopt. • I next thought of ex- 
tracting it from water by passing steam over iron filings. Un- 
fortunately, however, there were no iron filings in Flores, so 
that plan had also to be dropped. In the end I decided to 
effect my object by the destructive distillation of wood in a 
sealed retort, just as coal is distilled for lighting purposes in 
ordinary gas-works. True, the resulting product would not 
be pure hydrogen, yet it would be light enough to float my bal- 
loon, which was all I wanted. The process is simple, and I 
was quite familiar with it ; on the other hand, Flores pos- 
sessed few resources, and hardly any skilled labor, so that I 
had to do nearly all the work myself. But necessity is the 
mother of invention, and pending the arrival of the balloon 
and the other materials, for which I had sent to England, I 
managed to fix up a furnace, built a retort of adobes lined 
with cement — which I thought would stand fire for at least a 
few hours — and made a drop-well. As I did not require the 
gas for illuminating purposes, there was no need to be very 
particular in the matter of purifying. My chief aim was to ob- 
tain as large a proportion of carbureted hydrogen as possible, 
which could best be done by quick heating of the retort ; and I 
knew that the resinous woods that abounded in the neighbor- 
hood would make even a hotter fire than coal. 

The car was a simpler matter than I had expected. A big basket 
would do, and one of the few craftsmen of whom Flores could 
boast happened to be a basket-maker, who, working under my 
direction, produced a roomy a.nd sufficiently substantial article. 

At length came advice of the shipment of the balloon and the 


76 


V. 

THE PHANTOM CITY. 

other things, and of the date of their probable arrival at Belize, 
whither I went to receive them. Their transport to Flores 
proved a stiffer job than I had anticipated ; but it was put 
through, and the packages reached their destination in ‘ ‘ good 
order and safe condition.” 

I found the Floreseros in a state of intense excitement. My 
preparations were, of course, no secret, and the corregidor had 
talked much and largely of the balloon, and the wonders I was 
going to perform. The result was in some respects decidedly 
inconvenient, for I had so many voluntary assistants that I 
hardly knew which way to turn. The senoritas were especially 
curious and inquisitive, and drove me nearly wild with their 
questions and observations. 

But everything has an end, and, after much toil and worry, 
and one or two vexatious breakdowns, I got my apparatus into 
working order, and proceeded to inflate my balloon, first taking 
care that it was safely tethered. It filled well, and rose mag- 
nificently. Then I hauled it down to the level of the ground, 
showed the corregidor inside, got in myself, and directed my 
assistants to let it rise about two-score yards. 

When the old gentleman felt himself going up he became ter- 
ribly alarmed. 

“ Suppose the ropes break ? ” he said, turning very .pale. 

“ Then we shall have a delightful ride through the air.” 

u Heaven forbid ! Why, we might go to the moon ! ” 

“Possibly. Shall we try? I dare say I could stop it and 
come down if you wanted ; and you have no idea what a deli- 
cious sensation it is, floating over the mountain-tops and cruising 
among the stars.” 

“ Caramba, Senor Doctor ! Take heed what you say. If I 
did not know you so well, I should think ” 

“ What ? ” 

“ That you were an emissary of the Evil One, luring me to 
destruction.” (Here his teeth began to chatter, warm though 
it was.) “Would you mind, dear Senor Doctor, telling the 
men to pull us down ? I fear my wife — she is there watching 
us — will be getting uneasy. I do indeed. For myself I do not 
care ; but when ladies are concerned, we must consider their 
feelings rather than our desires. And Martha, though a stout 
woman, is very nervous. See, she beckons to us. Do, please ! ” 

Thinking I had teased the old gentleman enough, I directed 
the men to haul the balloon down. 

“ Thank Heaven and the Holy Virgin I am once more on firm 
ground ! ” exclaimed the corregidor , as he embraced his wife. 
“ I will never get into that thing again. I would rather take 
my chance in an earthquake. And don’t you, Senor Doctor. 


A NEW DEPARTURE. 


77 


Let it go — to the moon, if it will. It is an accursed invention, 
and will bring you no luck ! ” 

I could see by the looks and hear by the murmurs of the by- 
standers that they fully shared the corregidor's views ; and I 
have no doubt they thought in their hearts that the balloon was 
the handiwork, more or less, of our ghostly foe. 

It was not without intention that I had frightened the correg- 
idor, and refrained from letting him see how easily I could 
lower the balloon by letting out gas. To tell the truth, my con- 
science was beginning to reproach me for the part circumstances 
were compelling me to play. He was such a good old fellow, 
that it was really a shame to deceive him ; to deceive him and 
hurt his feelings at the same time would have been too bad, and 
I wanted so to manage matters that the deception should never 
be known. Better leave him to the belief that I had been car- 
ried off nolens volens by a devil-possessed balloon, than let him 
deem me guilty of the unkindness and ingratitude of stealing 
away without giving a hint of my intention, or saying a word 
of farewell. I liked the old man so much that I did not want 
him to think ill of me, and he and my other friends would un- 
questionably have destroyed the balloon, rather than allow me 
to go. Their hostility to it was so great that they were as likely 
to destroy it as not, even if I remained ; and unless I went at 
once, I might not get away at all. Another reason for imme- 
diate departure was the fact of the wind being fair. It varied 
from nor’ -east by north, to east-nor’-east, and would carry me 
right over the Cordilleras, and, as I thought and hoped, across 
the valley of the upper Usamacinta. 

I might never have such another chance. It would be folly 
to let it slip ; so I made up my mind to start early on the follow- 
ing morning. After seeing that the balloon was well fastened, 
I had a few bags of sand put into it — as an additional precau- 
tion, and to keep it in a proper position, as I explained. To 
prevent the meddling of curious busybodies, I hinted that any 
touching of the ropes or other parts of the apparatus might 
cause a terrific explosion. When night came I put on board, 
unobserved, everything I wanted to take with me, and all that 
I was likely to require for my journey — water, food, clothing, 
instruments, the magneto-electric machine, arms and ammuni- 
tion, and a few other odds and ends. 

These preparations were by no means made with a light heart. 
I knew that I was embarking on a cruise which might cost me 
my life, and that in all probability I should never see Flores 
and its people again. They were a simple, kindly folk, and I 
had become much attached to them, and they, I think, to me. 
Senora Grijalva, my hostess, treated me as a member of her 


78 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


family, and she had three charming daughters — Juanita, Patri- 
cia, and Antonia — who were even more amiable and gracious 
than their mother. Juanita was my favorite. She sang di- 
vinely, and played the marimba to perfection, was more 
thoughtful and intelligent than her sisters, and if I could have 
done as the corregidor desired, I think it is very likely that 

Juanita However, it was not to be. I had other and 

sterner work before me than living a quiet, uneventful life in 
the land of flowers. 

Poor Juanita ! I have often wondered what she thought and 
how she felt when she saw my balloon sail away towards the 
unknown country beyond the dark Cordilleras. 

A few days previously I had received a characteristic letter 
from Dominick, dated from Davos Platz in the Engadine. His 
health was already very much better, he said, but his breath 
had been completely taken away by my mad proposal to look 
for the Phantom City in a balloon. He besought me to think 
better of it. “You have done all that man could do.” He 
went on : “To make another attempt would be something like 
a tempting of Providence. At the same time, you are just the 
man to refuse to listen to reason and to go your own way, what- 
ever may be urged against it. And, really, you seem to have 
as many lives as a cat. If, after all, you persist in going up in 
a balloon, I believe you will come down, and that some time, 
and somewhere or other, we shall meet again. In this hope, I 
remain, truly your friend, Peter Dominick.— P.S. Better give 
up the idea of meeting at Merida, I think. If you do come 
down, communicate with my bankers in London, and they will 
let you know where I am. — P.D.” 

This letter, as may be supposed, did not shake my resolution 
in the least — rather encouraged me, in fact, It was true : I did 
seem to have as many lives as a cat. Like Napoleon, I had con- 
fidence in my star, and felt that, sooner or later, and somehow 
or other, I should succeed in my undertaking, and find the ob- 
ject of my quest. 

Shortly after daylight on the following morning I left Senora 
Grijalva’s house for the last time, and in a very melancholy 
mood. I found the balloon all right, and, early as it was, sur- 
rounded by a small crowd of gaping villagers. I stepped at once 
into the car, and requested two of them who came to my help 
to let out the rope when I gave the word. I was scarcely seated 
when up came the corregidor , in a state of great excitement. 

“ What are you doing ? ” he asked. 

“Iam going to try if the balloon will still rise.” 

“I would not if I were you. Suppose it refuses to come 
down ! Let me entreat you, Senor Doctor ! You are running 


THROUGH THE AIR. 


79 


into danger. Do not, I beg of you, compel me to exert my 
authority ; but I shall really be obliged — I — I really shall ” 

While he talked I gave the signal. A moment later, the two 
men had paid out all the rope, and I was a hundred feet above 
their heads. 

“ Come down, Senor Doctor ; come down ! ” screamed the cor- 
regidor. “Pull the ropes, Ramon! Pull, Jose! Make the 
accursed thing come down ! ” 

But this was more than Ramon and Jose could do. The wind 
being strong, the balloon seemed much more disposed to pull 
them up than to let them pull it down. All they could do was 
to hold on. Seeing this, the corregidor and several others ran 
to their help. At this moment one of the ropes (secretly un- 
loosed by me) gave way. Ramon fell flat on his back, and 
Jose, after letting himself be lifted a few feet from the ground, 
followed his comrade’s example, and rolled over his prostrate 
body. 

I was off. The last I saw of the Floreseros was a mass of 
fear-stricken, upturned faces, among which I thought I could 
distinguish the honest countenance of the corregidor and the 
dark, tender eyes of the lovely Juanita. 


CHAPTER XV. 

THROUGH THE AIR. 

In a few minutes Flores became a mere speck, and then faded 
utterly away. Beneath me, and to the farthest limits of the 
horizon, stretched a vast ocean of verdure, and from the height 
to which I had risen hill and dale seemed no more than the 
undulations of a sylvan sea. The streams were silver threads, 
the lakes diamonds ; and though the great sun flamed in a sky 
of clearest blue, his heat was tempered by the breeze that wafted 
me along. 

Yet, though so highly favored by circumstances, I realized for 
the first time the desperate nature of the expedition in which I 
had engaged, and whatever may have been the cause — whether 
the intense loneliness of my position, or the reaction from the 
excitement of the last few days — my spirits fell as my balloon 
rose ; I began to imagine all sorts of dread possibilities, and 
had it been in my power, I almost think I should have turned 
back. But I was now at the mercy of the wind ; whither it led 
I must go. This was the alarming part of it : how long would 
the wind hold fair, and, if not, what then ? I was between two 


80 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


oceans, and if a storm arose I might be driven towards the 
Pacific or the Atlantic and perish miserably of starvation. It 
would be almost as bad were the wind to die out altogether 
and leave me becalmed. Or some accident might befall the 
balloon, the gas might escape, and after going up like a rocket, 
I might come down like a stick. But even if none of these 
things should happen, and my descent be voluntary, I might 
conceivably make a bad shot, and either drop into the crater of 
a volcano, the middle of a Chole village, or among a network of 
barrancas and canons, from which extrication would be impos- 
sible. And supposing I escaped this and other dangers, how 
was I to identify the Phantom City if I should be so lucky as to 
come near it ? How distinguish it from a mass of more than 
usually perfect ruins ? 

I might even — horrible thought — descend on the very ruins 
from which I had lately had so much difficulty in getting 
away ! 

I had thought of all these contingencies before — except, per- 
haps, the one last mentioned — and deliberately determined to 
risk them ; but now that they stared me in the face, and might 
come to pass within a few hours, they looked much more for- 
midable. I began to think myself quite as foolhardy as most 
sane people would have deemed me, and at that moment I re- 
garded the odds against me as being about ten thousand to 
one. 

However, I am never low-spirited for very long together, and 
the motion of the balloon was so pleasant, and the view so 
glorious, and the sense of speeding through the air without 
effort so exhilarating, that my courage gradually returned. I 
lighted my pipe, and as I had looked on the dark side of the 
picture, I tried now to look on the bright side. The balloon 
was behaving admirably — that was one good thing ; the weather 
was fine and the wind fair — two more good things. If the 
worst came to the w T orst, and I missed the Phantom City alto- 
gether, there seemed no reason why I should not carry on until 
I reached Totonicapan or Quesaltenango, where there were 
civilized settlements and a tame population. I had food and 
water enough for four days, and much less time than that 
would suffice to take me to the Pacific coast. 

As for identifying the Phantom City, I must just take the 
truth of the legend and the story of the Cura’s Chiche for 
granted, and only descend to terra firma when I distinctly saw 
a lake, an island, and a town. 

A large sheet of water is, fortunately, a good sign, visible a 
long way off. Even now, high up as I was, I could easily, with 
the help of my field-glass, distinguish rivers and streams, which 


THROUGH THE AIR. 


81 


were scattered about like strings of pearl in an emerald sea. 
By letting off gas I could get closer to the ground whenever I 
liked ; but as there was a certain amount of leakage always 
going on, and the gas I might lose could not be replaced, I did 
not want to resort to this expedient until it should become ab- 
solutely necessary, and I had reason to believe that I was ap- 
proaching the locality where, in my imaginary chart, I had 
placed the Phantom City. 

As yet, however, I had not crossed the Cordilleras, and what- 
ever else might be in doubt, there could be no question that I 
should have to cross' the mountains before I could reach my 
destination. 

Judging by the rapidly-changing character of the country 
and my own sensations, I was traveling at a fair rate. Towards 
noon I seemed to be getting nearer the ground. The streams 
grew bigger. I could distinguish, with the naked eye, hill from 
dale, bare barrancas from wooded heights ; from which I in- 
ferred that I was over the Cordilleras, for my barometer told 
me that the balloon was not more than a hundred feet lower 
than it had been at the highest. This gave me great satisfac- 
tion ; it showed that I was moving fast, and in the direction I 
wanted to go. It showed, too, that I was wasting little gas, 
and that I might hope to pass the highest point of the mountains 
without having to throw out sand. 

I did not want for occupation. When not looking at my 
barometer, or casting an eye on the balloon, I was sweeping the 
country with my glass ; and never did I behold a grander pano- 
rama than that which stretched beneath me. Dark valleys of 
immeasurable depth, tremendous precipices clothed with ver- 
dure, splendid peaks and castle-like crags, rearing their silvery 
crests in the azure sky, foaming torrents cleaving their way 
through primeval forests, here and there a mountain tarn 
glistening like a diamond in the sun, and far away to the sou’- 
west a rugged volcanic peak from which rose a long column of 
dark-blue smoke. 

It was perhaps an hour past noon that, as I looked with de- 
light on this incomparable scene, there came over it a startling 
change. It stood still. At the same time the pleasant breeze 
which had so far tempered the great heat as suddenly dropped. 
Then I knew that one of the things I most feared had come to 
pass — I was becalmed. Becalmed right over the pathless gorges 
and unexplored wilds of the Cordilleras, which no white man 
had ever seen and probably no human foot had ever trod. The 
balloon could not have stopped in a worse place — except per- 
haps over the crater of an active volcano. But there is a cer- 
tain comfort in having no alternative, for where there is choice 


v 


82 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


there is room for hesitation. Here, at least, there was none. 
I could only stay where I was and whistle for a wind ; and at 
an altitude so great it was impossible for the air to remain long 
without movement. My great fear was that it might move the 
wrong way. But as worrying could have no effect upon atmos- 
pheric currents, I put down my glass and ate my dinner of 
jerked beef and tortillas with good appetite, and then, filling 
my pipe with Peten tobacco — the best in the world, I think — lay 
down in the car, and consoled myself with a smoke. 

After my smoke I indulged in a siesta, for I had slept little 
the night before, and the day was overpoweringly hot. I don’t 
know how long I slept, but I awoke with a start and a sense of 
surprise, not remembering for a moment where I was. Then I 
rubbed my eyes, and, shading them with my hands, looked up 
into the sky. 

“Hang it!” I thought, “what can that speck be? A 
cloud ? ” 

Hardly. 

But whatever it might be, it grew bigger and came nearer 
even as I looked. I took up my glass and looked again. 

The speck was a bird — a very big bird, or at that distance, 
for it must have been miles away, I could not have seen it at 
all. 

I watched the creature with sleepy curiosity, speculating as 
to the rate at which it might be traveling, and recalling the 
stories I had read of the rapid flight of vultures and falcons, 
and their wonderful powers of scent and vision, when it struck 
me that this particular bird I had in view seemed to be making 
straight for the balloon. From its great size, moreover, I took 
it to be a condor, the largest of known birds, a veritable mon- 
arch of the air, more than a match for buffalo or jaguar, 
strong enough to carry off a man as easily as an eagle carries off 
a leveret. 

A single dash of its claws into the balloon would mean sudden 
collapse and swift destruction. The thought was appalling. I 
watched the huge thing with intense anxiety, hoping against 
hope that it had some other object, and would give me a wide 
berth. 

But when it got within a mile and still came on as straight as 
a die, I knew that I must prepare for a difficulty. The condor 
meant mischief. 

I took up the repeating rifle, for which I had sent to England, 
resolving to fire the moment the bird came well within range 
and I could be sure of my aim. 

When the great bird was about five hundred yards off he 
pulled up, and, poising himself on his outstretched wings, 


THROUGH THE AIR. 


83 


which must have reached fully fourteen feet, seemed to be mak- 
ing a critical examination of the balloon and its occupant. It 
was evidently the first ornithological specimen of the sort he had 
seen, and he was probably thinking whether it was safe to at- 
tack or good to eat. Then he wheeled slowly round, coming 
every time a little nearer, and I could now see, by the cartilag- 
inous comb that crowned his head and the wattle which envel- 
oped his neck, that he was a male. At length he appeared to 
have made up his mind for a still closer inspection, and with 
extended neck made straight for the balloon. In doing this he 
exposed his breast, for which, kneeling in the car, and taking 
steady aim, I fired. 

The condor dropped like a stone. But only a few yards, and 
to rise again to the level of the balloon. On this I fired again — 
this time at the junction of the wing with the body. The shot 
was fatal, the wounded wing dropped useless by his side, and 
after a desperate effort to recover himself, the bird fell sheer 
down, struck against a pinnacle of rock, bounded off, and dis- 
appeared amongst the trees which grew at its foot. 

I breathed a deep sigh of relief, for the danger had been very 
real, and it was one on which I had in no wise counted. If the 
condor had come straight down, or while I was asleep, I should 
never have seen him, and our relative positions would have 
been reversed. I should have been down among the rocks, he 
up in the air. It was fortunate, too, that the balloon was still ; 
had it been moving I could not have taken such good aim. On 
the other hand, it was probably this very stillness which had 
attracted the condor’s attention, and, for aught I knew, might 
attract that of others ; though as these birds generally confine 
themselves to the Andes and to heights of ten thousand feet and 
upwards, I rather thought the one I had shot was a straggler, 
driven from his native haunts by a rival, and that I should see 
no more of them. 

I had just come to this satisfactory conclusion, and was lean- 
ing lazily over the side and smoking my relighted pipe, when I 
heard the whirr of wings behind me. 

Before I could look round, the car gave a violent lurch, and I 
found myself outside, holding on for bare life to a rope which I 
had instinctively clutched as I fell. 

The balloon had been attacked by a second condor, evidently 
the mate of the one I had killed ; but, fortunately for me, 
instead of clawing the silk, she dashed against the car, which 
she had seized with her beak, and was now beating with her wings. 

The additional weight was making the balloon descend rapidly, 
and the condor shook the car so much that I had great difficulty 
in getting back ; but by a desperate effort I managed at last to 


84 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


get one foot inside, and, still holding the rope, I picked up my 
revolver and fired two bullets into the bird’s neck. The wings 
stopped beating at once, but the beak remained firmly fixed in 
the basket-work, and the dead weight (now the wings were no 
longer beating) pulled the balloon down more than ever, so 
tilting the car that if it had not been for the rope I should cer- 
tainly have fallen out again. 

Steadying myself as well as I could, I fired a third bullet, this 
time between the eyes ; but though the condor was now as dead 
as a stone, I had to prize the beak open with my machete before 
I could get rid of the carcass. 

Then the balloon rose again and remained as still as before. 
Not knowing how many more condors might think fit to favor 
me with their intentions, I reloaded my rifle and revolver, 
thanked Heaven for my escape, and, like Wellington at Water- 
loo, prayed for night. 

When I say the balloon was still, I do not mean that it was an 
absolute fixture, for though I felt no motion, I knew from the 
changing position of certain bearings which I had taken, that I 
was drifting slowly, if almost imperceptibly, southward. I 
looked upon this as a good omen, and felt sure that the breeze 
would spring up again before long. My fear now was that it 
would spring up too soon, the day being far spent, and if the 
wind rose at sunset, or early in the night, I might easily be 
carried over the Phantom City without seeing it. In view of 
this possibility it would have been better had I delayed my start 
until there was light of moon. But if I had waited until every 
circumstance was favorable, and moon, wind, and weather all 
smiled on me at once, I should probably never have started at all. 

When a man engages in a hazardous enterprise he must leave 
much to Providence and think as little of himself as may be. 
If he lets his mind dwell on the danger, conjures up difficulties, 
and tries to provide for every possible contingency, one thing at 
least is sure — he will not succeed. 

So, resigning myself to the inevitable, I hoped for the best ; 
and, seeing no more suspicious specks moving in my direction, 
watched the sun go down with good courage, wondering where 
I and my balloon would be the next time I saw him. His dis- 
appearance left me in thick darkness. Not a glimmer in the 
gky — the world blotted out of existence, I peered over the edge 
of the car, drew back with a shudder, partly from the horror 
of it, partly from cold — for the air, though serene, was chilly, 
and I was too far from the earth to benefit by its radiation. The 
silence was awful. I would have welcomed the din which I had 
found so trying when benighted in the forest as friendly voices, 

Never before had I knowp what it was to be really alone, I 


THROUGH THE AIR. 


85 


had no companions, seen or unseen. I was a mere waif, drift- 
ing between heaven and earth. Again the melancholy mood 
came over me,, and as I sank into the bottom of the car, the in- 
tense stillness made me almost weep ; but remembering that I 
was as much one of God’s creatures, as entirely in His hands as 
if I were sitting by my own fireside in far-away dear old En- 
gland, my mind became more composed. The thought soothed 
and consoled me ; and, covering myself with all the clothes I 
had, I sank into a deep sleep. 

When I awoke, the sky was all aglow with myriads of mag- 
nificent stars, and the balloon moving rapidly through space — 
in what direction I was unable precisely to determine, for I 
could not read my compass, and my matches blew out as fast 
as I struck them, but, judging from the position of the constel- 
lations — especially the Southern Cross — almost due south. Amid 
that scene of more than earthly beauty, so entrancing that I 
hardly heeded the bitter cold, I sped on until the stars began to 
pale and the red-rimmed sun rose majestically above the eastern 
Cordilleras. 

I looked eagerly at my compass. I had not been mistaken. 
The balloon’s course was west-sou’-west. How long she had 
been going at this speed I had no idea. It might be only an 
hour — a few minutes ; but if the wind had freshened soon after 
I went to sleep, it might be seven or eight hours. As, on refer- 
ence to my barometer, I found that the balloon was at about the 
same height as before, and the earth seemed considerably lower, 
I concluded that I had passed the highest ridge of the Cordil- 
leras, for I was now floating over falling but very broken and 
undulating ground — conical hills, high table-lands, desolate 
barrancas, deep valleys, with here and there broad sweeps of 
savanna, covered for the most part with thick forest. Yet 
neither sign of human presence, nor the least vestige of the 
Phantom City. 

Could I have passed it ? Impossible ! But though I tried, 
hard to reassure myself, and it was not probable that I had as 
yet come near the Phantom country, there was no denying that, 
during those hours of darkness and sleep, I must have swept 
over a vast stretch of territory. At any rate, if the wind held, 
this day must decide my fate. If evening came and brought 
with it neither sign nor sight of the city there would be no more 
room for hope. 

I used the glass almost continually, removing it only to glance 
at the compass or barometer ; and when the ground seemed to 
sink I let out gas. So intent was I that, albeit hungry, I did 
not cease from looking. While I held the glass with one hand, 
I ate with the other. 


86 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


The hours went on. I glanced at my watch. Nine o’clock. 
Then the sun reached the zenith. Still no sign. One o’clock. 
The same. Two. Still no sign. Yet in that clear air, and with 
my powerful glass, I could see over a great extent of country. 

I put my glass down and shut my eyes, partly out of the sick- 
ness of heart that comes of hope deferred, partly because they 
were getting dim with long looking. 

I kept my eyes closed fully half an hour ; then, trembling 
with excitement and apprehension — for this was nearly my last 
hope— I raised my glass slowly, almost reluctantly, and looked 
again. 

“Ah ! what is that?” 

A gleam as of water over the crest of yonder hills, a score or 
two of miles to the south. Water it is, sure enough — probably 
a lake ; but if there be anything else I cannot make it out. I 
am too low, those mountains obstruct the view. I have let out 
too much gas. A bag of sand overboard. There ! I am rising. 
Still, nothing clearly visible, save a sheet of water in what ap- 
pears to be a vast plain begirt with hills. I adjust my tele- 
scope ; it carries farther than the field-glass, but, owing to the 
oscillation of the balloon, is more difficult to manage. 

Steadying it on the bight of a rope, I take a long look. Yes, 
a biggish lake, and in the middle of it a large dark object and 
two or three smaller ones. Islands beyond a doubt. As yet, 
however, I can see no buildings. But everything else answers 
to the description of the Cura’s Indian. All the same, if. there 
are no buildings 

I lay down the telescope, and try to calm myself ; glance at 
the compass and barometer, and see that the balloon is all right 
and tight. Then at it again. 

Something white seems to emerge from the larger island — the 
others are mere specks. Something white, glistening in the 
sun. Buildings or rocks ? Too soon to determine, but in all 
probability the former. As I draw nearer they grow larger and 
become more distinctly defined. Yes, buildings without a 
doubt, but whether perfect or in ruins, peopled or unpeopled, it 
is impossible to say. Anyhow, I make up my mind to descend ; 
for, if this be not the city of the legend, it either does not exist 
or is beyond the power of man to discover. And even if the 
valley is not inhabited, I can live there. I will take my chance 
of getting away. 

Rather than miss the opportunity it will be better to go down 
at once and finish the journey on foot. But on taking the bear- 
ings I find that, though the balloon’s course is a point or two 
wide of the island, I shall be able to descend into the valley with- 
out, as I hope, falling into the water. 


PHANTOM-LAND AT LAST. 


87 


CHAPTER XVI. 

PHANTOM -LAND AT LAST. 

When I pass over the line of hills which bound the valley to 
the north, assurance becomes doubly sure : their lower slopes 
are under cultivation and dotted with dwellings, and the lacus- 
trine island is covered with buildings of large size and hand- 
some proportions, which so far bear out the legend that they 
‘ ‘ glisten like silver in the sun. ” The large island seems to be 
connected with the shore by a chain of islets, and I judge the 
last to be about sixty or seventy miles in circumference. The 
surrounding country is green and park-like, interspersed with 
groups of trees, and appears to be richly cultivated. 

But I was thinking less of fair landscapes just then than the 
navigation of my balloon. I let out gas pretty freely, knowing 
that in case of need I could rise again by throwing out ballast. 
My object was to descend as near the city as possible, for I 
thought I should be likely to meet with a better reception from 
the authorities than from the rustics, who might make short 
work both of me and my balloon. As I neared the ground, being 
only a few yards above the tree-tops, I could see people gesticu- 
lating and running about in all directions, evidently in a state 
of great excitement. The lake was still some distance off, and 
as I was getting lower than I liked, I threw out ballast, and got 
my grappling-irons ready. 

After carrying on about ten minutes longer I found that 1 
was within a mile of the lake, and as I wanted neither to pass 
over it nor drop into it, I let out gas again, and when low 
enough threw the irons into a grove of cocoa-trees. After tear- 
ing away a few branches they held fast, and the balloon brought 
to with a shock that nearly threw me out of the car. My aerial 
voyage was over, and in that balloon at least I did not think I 
should ever take another. It had served me well, and, so far, 
I had every reason to consider myself highly favored by fort- 
une, for there could be little doubt that the island city was the 
city which I sought. 

I did not get out at once. I waited to see what would hap- 
pen, for some indication of the disposition of the natives — 
whether they were likely to treat me as an enemy or receive me 
as a friend. Several were already gathered before the grove 
where I had “let go,” and from my “ coign of vantage ” above 
the tree-tops I could watch their movements, and might, per- 
chance, guess their intentions. 


88 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


To judge from their gesticulations and the respectful distance 
at which they kept themselves, they were both excited and 
alarmed — and no wonder, if they had never seen a balloon be- 
fore. I was glad to see they were unarmed, except with the 
inevitable machete , which, however, is no more a weapon than 
a sickle or a scythe. But what surprised me most, though, 
strangely enough, it did not strike me at first, was the white- 
ness of their skins. I do not mean that the people were as fair 
as a blonde Englishman, but they were lighter than an average 
Spaniard. Their complexions were clear, too, and their feat- 
ures more intelligent and refined than those of any Indian peo- 
ple I had met with or heard of. Had it not been for their lank, 
lustreless locks, I should have thought they were descended 
from some European or Asiatic stock, but the cylindroidal char- 
acter of their hair stamped them as belonging to an aboriginal 
American race. They were broad-set, and seemed short of 
stature, though as to this I could not be quite sure, while the 
absence of beard and the lightness of their skins gave them an 
appearance of comparative youth. Their dress was simple and 
well suited to the climate — a blouse of unbleached cotton stuff, 
a bright-coiored belt or sash, probably of the same material, a 
short kilt, and sandals. Their head-gear consisted of a hat of 
some light fabric, in shape and general appearance not unlike 
an Indian pith helmet. 

I made these observations — and I thought them highly satis- 
factory — by means of my field-glass, which, so far as seeing was 
concerned, brought me within a few feet of the group of by- 
standers, now fast becoming a crowd. At any rate, I had not 
fallen among savages. 

These people were not only gardeners and husbandmen, they 
could spin, weave, and dye ; and the splendid edifices which 
adorned the islands of the lake showed that they knew how to 
design and build. 

But it did not seem as if they knew much about optics, for 
every time I raised the glass to my eyes, or took it away, there 
was a shout of astonishment ; but curiosity was beginning to 
get the better of fear — if fear there was — and the men — for, so 
far as I could make out, none of the softer sex were present — 
drew nearer, many of the bolder spirits coming quite close to 
the tree to which I had grappled the balloon. 

How could I offer them a token of amity? I thought of 
waving my pocket-handkerchief, but it was hardly to be ex- 
pected that this primitive folk would understand the meaning 
of a flag of truce. I hit upon a much happier idea. I charged 
my pipe, lighted it with a tinder and steel apparatus such as is 
sold by English tobacconists, and began to smoke. 


PHANTOM-LAND AT LAST. 


Another shout, followed by some laughter, whereupon sev- 
eral of the Phantoms produced pipes of their own, and, nodding 
at me in a friendly way, filled them ; and, a bit of live charcoal 
being obtained, I knew not how, we joined in smoking the calu- 
met of peace. At any rate, this was the construction I put upon 
the proceeding, and, thinking the occasion opportune for making 
a more decided move, I let down a couple of ropes, and, twisting 
them round my legs sailor fashion, slid down to firm earth. 

The Phantoms started back in surprise, probably not un- 
mixed with dismay, much as a crowd of English rustics might 
do if a gigantic Zulu were to drop down among them from the 
sky. Not that my height is extraordinary — I stand six feet one 
in my stockings — but, compared with these people, the tallest 
of whom was not more than five feet six, I was almost a giant. 
Then they had long black hair and bare faces ; my hair was 
short, curly, and chestnut, and I was bearded like the pard. 
Altogether the difference between us was so striking that they 
might well suppose I belonged to another world, if I had not 
actually descended from the stars. 

When I thought we had stared at each other long enough, I 
quietly re-charged my pipe and lit it with a lucifer. The strik- 
ing of the match caused great wonderment, and drew forth 
many expressions of surprise. Then I went a little closer to 
them, gracefully waving my pipe by way of greeting — a sign to 
which the men nearest me responded by laying their right hands 
on the ground and then on. their heads. I did likewise, after 
which we stared at each other again. 

They were evidently a kindly, good-natured folk, these Phan- 
toms — nothing ferocious or savage either in their attitude or 
their faces. I wanted to open a conversation with them. The 
difficulty was what to say or how to begin. I had made myself 
fairly proficient in Mayan, and knew something of Quiche, the 
root languages of Central America, but they are split up into 
such a multitude of dialects that I felt great doubt, even sup- 
posing these people spoke a kindred tongue, whether they could 
understand me, or I them. Aboriginal Indian languages are 
all, I believe, hyposynthetic, like the bill of the English farrier, 
who w T rote, “ shooinyergreyoss — atakinonimomeagin ; ” that is 
to say, a phrase is a word : broken up it becomes meaningless. 
They are destitute alike of inflections and concrete forms. I 
did not know that the Phantom language possessed these char- 
acteristics, but I thought that very likely it did, and, conclud- 
ing it would be best to start the palaver as simply as might be, 
I said, in my best Mayan, and pointing to my pipe : 

‘ ‘ I smoke the pipe of peace. ” Then, pointing to the smokers, 
“ You smoke the pipe of peace.” 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


00 


They (lid not seem to understand, so I repeated the observa- 
tion, speaking very slowly and distinctly. On this they smiled 
pleasantly and nodded intelligently, from which I inferred that 
if they did not understand my language they, at any rate, 
divined my thoughts. They said something in return, which, 
albeit I was unable to make out, sounded very like Mayan, and 
referred, I felt sure, to eating or drinking. 

I bowed, and answered in the Mayan affirmative, for I felt 
both hungry and thirsty. 

This time I was understood without difficulty. Everybody 
smiled, and one of the Phantoms, stepping out of the ranks, 
signified that he would like to take me somewhere. I followed 
him without hesitation. He led me to an opening among the 
trees a few score yards away, where stood a little house, built of 
sun-dried bricks and thatched with the leaves of maguey (Mexi- 
can aloe), a splendid specimen of which, with its clustering 
pyramids of flowers towering above their coronal-like leaves, 
threw its graceful shade over the cottage. 

My conductor, after courteously inviting me by word and 
gesture to seat myself on a bench under the aloe-tree, went into 
the house, whence he presently returned, followed by two girls, 
each carrying a wooden platter, on one of which were two 
wooden cups, on the other a pile of cakes. 

These being the first female Phantoms I had seen, I regarded 
them with much curiosity. Though their cheek-bones were 
rather high and their foreheads rather low, they were by no 
means uncomely, and their expression was amiable and good- 
humored. They were relatively tall, almost as tall as the men, 
seemed physically nearly as strong, and their skin, except where 
it had been bronzed by the sun, was as white as that of a blonde 
European. The dress of these maidens consisted of a loose- 
fitting jacket or bodice of quilted calico, laced in front with 
scarlet cord, and a skirt of the same material reaching a little 
below the knee. Their shapely legs and well-formed feet were 
innocent of shoes and stockings. Their hair, drawn back from 
the forehead, was done up in a bunch and fastened with a pair 
of silver skewers, while round their necks were strung orna- 
ments in gold and bone, which I believe were charms. 

I have said that I looked at these feminine Phantoms curiously. 
They returned my glances with interest, but more in fear than 
curiosity. If I had been a veritable phantom, fresh from the 
invisible world, they could not have shown more apprehension. 
When I rose and stretched out my arm to take one of the cups, 
their trepidation increased. The younger girl fairly turned 
tail and ran towards the house. The father — for such I took 
my conductor to be — laughed heartily, and shouted something 


PHANTOM-LAND AT LAST. 


91 


which I did not understand ; whereupon the fugitive came back, 
and, still eying me furtively, handed me a cup of what I found 
to be delicious chocolate. The cakes were of maize, and very 
eatable. 

I expressed my thanks, both by word and sign, and the girls, 
seeing that I ate and drank like a creature of flesh and blood, 
gathered confidence, and watched me with great interest. What 
seemed most to strike them were my hairy face and tall stature. 
Inferring from their manner and a few phrases which I par- 
tially understood that they doubted whether my beard was a 
part of my dress or a part of myself, I gave it a good tug, and 
signed to them to do the same. After a good deal of hesitation 
they laughingly complied, yet very cautiously withal, as if they 
were pulling the whiskers of a sleeping tiger. Seeing, however, 
that I neither bit nor scratched, they grew bolder, and pulled 
so hard that I winced, and said “ Oh ! ” whereupon they laughed 
again. A touch of nature makes us all akin. We were thence- 
forth on the most friendly footing possible, and the fair Phan- 
toms pushed their investigation to the length of feeling what 
there was beneath the beard, being evidently under the impres- 
sion that the purpose of the adornment might be to conceal the 
absence of chin and lips. 

Our philandering was interrupted by a shout from the by- 
standers, who had been amused spectators of the scene. They 
were talking earnestly and pointing to the lake. Looking in the 
same direction, I saw two large boats, each manned by some 
half-dozen rowers, making rapidly for the nearest strand, which 
was only a few hundred yards from the cottage. When the 
boats took ground the crews jumped out, formed in military or- 
der, and, headed by one who appeared to be in authority, came 
on at a rapid swinging pace, which spoke well for their march- 
ing powers. All had bows slung at their backs, sheaves of ar- 
rows at their girdles, and each man was further armed with 
spear and shield. 

The officer in command of the party was much more richly 
and picturesquely attired than the peasants among whom I had 
fallen. His helmet-shaped hat was covered with plates of gold, 
his tunic embroidered with beautiful feather-work, and his kilt 
adorned with bronze and silver rings. His arms were a spear 
and a slender gold-hilted sword, so slender indeed as to suggest 
that it was intended rather for ornament than use. 

As touching his person, this Phantom gentleman was about 
five and a half feet high, and somewhat slightly built ; in com- 
plexion he was fairer than the peasants around me, and his 
hands and feet (he wore sandals, no stockings) were as small 
and delicate as those of a woman. 


92 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


When he came opposite the aloe-tree I rose, and, drawing 
myself to my full height, looked him straight in the face. 
Though I could see that he was as much surprised by my ap- 
pearance as the others had been, he returned my look without 
flinching, and, after a moment’s hesitation, saluted me, by put- 
ting his hand on the ground and then on his head. I returned 
the greeting in the same fashion, not without a sense of satis- 
faction ; for, though I knew nothing of Phantom etiquette, I 
had an idea — which subsequent observation confirmed — that by 
giving the first salute the. officer virtually acknowledged me as 
his superior. 

That he was come to arrest me I had not the slightest doubt, 
and I had no intention of offering resistance — my only way of 
getting on with these people was to make friends of them — but 
I thought it good policy to show a firm front, and let them see 
that I expected to be treated with ‘ ‘ distinguished consideration. ” 

The saluting over, the officer said something which I made 
out to be an inquiry as to who I was, whence I came, and what 
I wanted. At any rate, if he did not say this he ought to have 
done. I answered in Mayan that I was a traveler from the ris- 
ing sun (pointing to the east), and wanted to see the Phantom 
City (pointing towards the island). He seemed puzzled — pretty 
much as a man does when he is trying to guess a hard riddle — 
but I thought he understood me better than the rustics had 
done. I marked that at the words “rising sun ” he bowed, and 
when I said ‘ ‘ the city where Phantoms dwell ” he smiled. I 
found afterwards that it was part of the Phantom religion to 
bow whenever the sun was mentioned. 

The officer replied in a little speech, of which I understood 
precious little, but his gestures were so expressive that I could 
not mistake his meaning. He wanted me to go with him. But 
as I had a decided objection to going without my kit I pointed 
to my balloon, and, without waiting for an answer, led the way 
in that direction. He and his men followed closely after, and, 
if I had increased my speed much, it is more than likely, that I 
should have the points of their spears in the small of my back. 

But I walked with great deliberation. When we reached the 
cocoa-tree I took hold of the ropes by which I had come down, 
began to pull, and signified that I should like a little help in 
the operation. It was forthcoming at once, and in a few min- 
utes we had the car of the balloon on a level with the ground. 
I detached it, and made the officer understand that I would like 
the car, with all it contained, to be carried down to the boat. 
He said a few words to his men, whereupon five or six of them 
raised the basket on their heads and walked solemnly with it to 
the boats, the officer and myself bringing up the rear. 


IXTIL : LORD OF LIGHT. 


93 


CHAPTER XVII. 

IXTIL: LORD OF LIGHT. 

I took my seat in the stern, near the officer, who took the 
tiller, which was simply a paddle pierced with a hole near the 
handle and moving- on a wooden pin. The planks forming the 
canoe-shaped boat were fastened with wooden pins, and as I 
had seen no sign of iron of any description, I concluded that 
the most useful of the metals was either unknown or little used 
in Phantom-land. The oars were paddles cut in two — a proof 
that the art of rowing had been only recently acquired — and 
nearly all the boats we met or passed were either canoe-shaped 
or real canoes, and propelled in the ordinary Indian fashion. 

Now that I was in it, the country looked much larger than it 
had looked from the balloon, when it was contrasted with the 
vast region round about. So did the lake, which seemed to 
empty itself into a river at the lower or southern end of the 
valley, where it was closed by a rugged volcanic peak, from 
whose summit rose a thick, dark line of smoke. I fancied it 
was the same which I had seen from the balloon. 

The banks of the lake were extremely picturesque. Great 
trees, conspicuous among which was the graceful corypha palm, 
and flowering shrubs, bent oyer its white sands and blue waters, 
while fields of yellow maize, interspersed with groves of aloe, 
cocoa, and coffee trees, and dotted with farm-houses, stretched 
to the base of the mountains and climbed half-way up their 
slopes. The flora was that of the tierra templada , the valley 
being nearly four thousand feet above the level of the sea — a 
fortunate circumstance for the Phantoms, as, though the soil 
was fertile and the climate genial, they could not well have 
lived without regular labor and systematic agriculture. 

I observed with surprise that many of the houses were built 
over the lake, resting on piles, like the ancient lacustrine vil- 
lages of Central Europe with which the researches of Swiss an- 
tiquaries have made us familiar. I found out afterwards that 
the lines of islets which extended from the island to either bank 
were equally artificial. But though inhabited, their most im- 
portant office was to serve as links in a causeway, bach islet 
being united to its fellow by a suspension bridge, sufficiently 
high to admit of the passage of boats. 

Though the oars were clumsy, the Phantom boatmen handled 
them with great dexterity, and an hour’s pulling brought us to 
the north end of the island. So far as I could judge, it was 


94 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


about three miles long, and from one to two broad, in shape 
almost oval, and indented with bays and inlets. The lower part 
was covered with luxuriant vegetation, flower-gardens, and 
noble trees ; the higher part, which rose well-nigh five hundred 
feet above the level of the lake, was crowned with stately build- 
ings, chief of which were three pyramidal towers not unlike the 
one I had seen at the ruins in the forest. The tallest, as I after- 
wards learned, was the observatory. Near it were the ruins of 
an ancient fort, almost hidden under a mass of verdure ; and 
several imposing edifices which I took to be temples and palaces. 
Built of huge unpolished blocks of beautiful white stone, they 
literally shone like frosted silver, and, when viewed from a dis- 
tance, their appearance might well give rise to the idea that 
they were covered with plates of the precious metal. The roofs 
were flat, and the fagades and entablatures elaborately carved 
into strange shapes and grotesque images, among which were 
figures of beasts and birds, and monstrous and hideous human 
faces. 

The Phantom City was Palenque, Uxmal, Chichen-Itza, or the 
ruins in the forest, restored, or as they would be had they never 
fallen into decay. 

The boats were moored to a wooden jetty, and we were 
received by an officer not above five feet three inches high, 
whose tunic and kilt seemed to be made almost entirely of 
feather-work, and whose sword was suspended to a sort of 
baldrick composed of alternate plates of gold and bronze. His 
manner was highly dignified, and his silver-grey hair gave him 
a decidedly European appearance. It would have required no 
great effort of imagination to believe that he was an actor, 
“ got up ” for playing a part in an opera or a comedy. 

After exchanging a few words with my conductor, he saluted 
me in the manner I have already described ; and when I had 
returned the courtesy he pointed towards the city, which was 
almost immediately above us, and led the way up a broad flight 
of steps, winding among groves of pepper and vanilla myrtles, 
orange and rose trees, and over ground mantled with a profusion 
of creeping plants, whose emerald verdure might vie with the 
greenest of English meadows. 

Ten minutes 1 easy walking brought .us to the outskirts of the 
city — a city, however, in the European sense of the word, it 
could hardly be considered. There were paths and roads — the 
latter in singularly good order — but no streets, the houses being 
scattered about, seemingly at haphazard, some perched on ter- 
races or half -hidden in groves, others nestling in hollows ; yet 
the general effect was singularly striking and picturesque. The 
smaller dwellings were built of red pine or (as I guessed) mahog- 


IXTIL : LORD OF LIGHT. 


95 


any and rosewood, and thatched with maguey leaves ; the 
larger, of grey-white stone, flat-roofed, with interior courts, 
where grew shrubs and flower-trees in rich profusion. The 
principal entrances were in every case wide, without door or 
gate, and arched, the crowns being obtuse, and the sides zig- 
zagged, like steps upside down. 

Nearly at the top of the hill rose a vast edifice, built on a 
natural platform of rock, to which access was gained by a flight 
of a hundred steps, each eighty feet wide. In front of it was a 
noble colonnade, supporting a cyclopean entablature, covered 
with strange figures and mysterious devices in relief. The pil- 
lars of the colonnade were square, each being composed of 
several enormous stones. 

Up the steps went my guide — I with him — the other officers 
and the men-at-arms following with the car containing my be- 
longings. 

There were four principal entrances, two wide and spacious, 
flanked by two others, which, though large, were somewhat 
smaller. We went in by one of the latter ; and after passing 
through a great hall and several lofty corridors, came to a room 
which, for a moment, I thought was a sculpture gallery. On 
either side of a doorway, curtained with a piece of variegated 
matting, stood a line of nearly nude figures, each holding a 
spear and a shield, and so still and motionless that they might 
well have been mistaken for inanimate figures. 

To one of these statues my conductor spoke a few words in an 
under-tone ; whereupon all wakened to life, and, raising their 
shields by a single movement, struck them simultaneously with 
their spears, then subsided once more into statuesque stillness. 

The echo of this martial yet not unmusical clash had hardly 
died away, when an answering ring, like a single stroke on a silver 
bell, came from beyond the screen. On this the officer, draw- 
ing aside the matting, beckoned me forward. I went forward 
accordingly, and found myself in a moderately large apartment, 
the walls of which were hung with arras of feather- work, and 
the floor carpeted with puma and jaguar skins. 

At a large table, in the middle of this room, sat a man with 
one of the most remarkable faces I ever beheld. Fair as a Eu- 
ropean, his broad forehead, aquiline nose, and square jaws, be- 
spoke both high intelligence and a powerful will. His rather 
deep-sunken eyes were dark and piercing, yet neither hard nor 
cruel, and when he smiled his expression was benevolent and 
winning. In the middle of his forehead was a tattooed star, 
surmounted by the emblem of a lighted torch. His black hair 
was beginning to assume the peculiar silvery hue which among 
aboriginal American r^ces is the mark of advancing years ; but 


96 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


his general appearance was that of a man comparatively young 
and in the prime of life. 

My companion, who followed closely after me, removed his 
helmet, touched the ground with one knee and one hand, and 
then, still stooping, laid the latter on his head. The personage at 
the table acknowledged the obeisance with an almost impercept- 
ible nod. Acting on the principle I had already laid down for 
myself, I merely doffed my hat and bowed. The personage, look- 
ing, however, rather surprised, bowed in return ; and, after 
putting a question to me which I did not understand, put sev- 
eral to the officer, which, I need hardly say, I found equally in- 
comprehensible, and talked with him several minutes. 

Then he spoke to me again. I answered him in Mayan, as I 
had answered the officer at the farm-house. 

The personage listened with great attention, and, I thought, 
understood much of what I said. He seemed pleased, pointed 
to a hieroglyphic manuscript on the table, and then, taking a 
small brush, drew with a few rapid strokes a man and a small 
boy, the former holding up his hand, the latter opening his 
mouth. 

There was no difficulty in understanding this. I answered in 
Mayan : 

‘ ‘ Teach a child to talk. ” 

The personage smiled again, and I gathered that he meant to 
teach me, or have me taught, the Phantom language. I wanted 
nothing better. On this the little officer put in a word, and at 
a sign from the personage, the screen was drawn aside, and the 
men-at-arms, who had been waiting outside, brought in the car. 

The personage — or, to give him his right name and title, Ixtil, 
the Lord of Light — inspected its contents with great interest. I 
respectfully presented him with a many-bladed knife, one of 
several which I had brought with me, and the telescope. If the 
former pleased him, the latter charmed him beyond measure. 

I had some trouble in adjusting the focus to his sight, but when 
everything was in order, and he had taken a look at the boats 
on the lake and the trees and houses on its banks, he could 
hardly speak for surprise, so far forgetting his dignity as to 
clap his hands and make other rather effusive demonstrations 
of astonishment and delight. 

After amusing himself in this way for a short time, he • 
pointed skyward and then touched the star on his forehead, by 
which I understood him to ask whether the telescope could be 
used for viewing the heavenly bodies. When I answered in the 
affirmative, he seemed quite overjoyed, and offered me his 
hand, as I presumed, in token of his royal favor. If I had been 
as conversant with Phantom court etiquette as I subsequently 


IXTIL : LORD OF LIGHT. 


97 


became I should have bowed low and pressed the hand to my 
forehead ; but in my ignorance I gave it a hearty shake, in the 
fashion of my country — a proceeding which seemed to take the 
Cacique * quite aback, and so horrified the little officer that I 
thought he would have expired on the spot. 

While this was going on another personage appeared on the 
scene — a short, squat, square-shouldered man, clad in a robe 
somewhat resembling a Roman toga, which left his arms and 
legs bare. Suspended round his neck by a gold chain was a 
massive green stone, probably jade or nephrite, on which were 
engraven queer-looking signs and mysterious symbols. To say 
that he was ill-favored would be paying him an unmerited com- 
pliment. Eyes so deep-sunken as to be hardly visible, no fore- 
head worth mentioning, a broad, flat nose, sallow skin, huge 
mouth, undershot lip, and great serrated teeth, made him pos- 
itively hideous. Had he been a little shorter he would have 
made a capital model for the Demon Dwarf of Victor Hugo’s 
celebrated romance. 

This Caliban — I may as well introduce him at once, though I 
had not as yet the pleasure of his acquaintance — was Cochitemi, 
high-priest of the Temple of the Sun. 

He looked at me with an evil eye, and, after making the 
usual obeisance, addressed himself to the Cacique. I had not 
the least doubt that I was the subject of his remarks, and I felt 
instinctively that they boded me no good. He seemed to be 
urging on Ixtil some course of action which the latter refused 
to adopt, for the Cacique’s countenance lowered, and he an- 
swered the priest firmly, almost angrily. 

After some further conversation Cochitemi left the presence, 
looking as black as thunder and as ugly as the night. 

Ixtil, who seemed annoyed, and, I thought, a little troubled, 
beckoned me to him, showed me the picture of the man and 
boy, also another of a man eating, and of a hammock, and, 
pointing to the officer, gave him an order. Then he waved his 
hand towards the screen, and said a few more words to the 
officer, whom he addressed as Coxoh. 

This signified that the audience was over, and that I was to 
be the Cacique’s guest, and begin my education forthwith. 

So we took our leave, and, after a bewildering walk through 
many passages, arrived before another screen, which my com- 
panion drew aside with scant ceremony, and ushered me into a 
room where a dim-eyed old gentleman sat reading a large scroll 

* I use this word (of Haytian origin") merely because it is the generally received 
designation of an American prince ; but Ixtil was always addressed by his peo- 

E le as the Lord of Light, and, like every other Phantom, invariably spoke of 
imself in the third person. 

7 


98 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


covered with hieroglyphics. This was Melchora, a great scholar, 
and one of the Cacique’s secretaries, to whom Coxoh introduced 
me in due form, and communicated his master’s commands — at 
any rate, I presumed so. Then he made the usual salute, and 
left us to ourselves. 

He had not been gone long when two servitors entered the 
room, carrying on two platters a dish of deliciously-cooked fish, 
on the other yams, fried bananas, pineapples, and avocada 
pears, to which they called my attention, and to which, being 
by this time half famished, I did ample justice. 

As I was finishing my repast the screen was again drawn 
aside, and four soldiers entered with the car. I looked inside 
and found everything intact. 

The Cacique is a gentleman, I thought ; and so he proved. 


CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE MAIDEN TRIBUTE. 

Melchora was a sort of Phantom Mezzofanti. Ho man in 
the country knew so many Indian dialects as he, and when there 
came to the city forest Indians who could not make themselves 
understood, he was always called upon to interpret. Though 
a priest of the order of the sun, Melchora “ occupied no position 
in the church,” his time being entirely taken up with his secre- 
tarial duties and linguistic and historic researches. He had a 
fine collection of ancient manuscripts, and could read hiero- 
glyphics which even to his brethren of the craft were insoluble 
enigmas. He knew nothing of Mayan, but his knowledge of 
cognate idioms enabled him to understand much that I said, 
and so to express himself that after a little practice I could 
make out what he meant. 

Under Melchora’s tuition I made rapid progress in Phantom. 
My principal difficulties were the differences in pronunciation 
between Phantom and Mayan, and the fact that, despite their 
undoubted kinship, the former was so much the more developed 
of the two. It had passed the hyposynthetical stage, possessed 
many inflections, lent itself readily to the expression of abstract 
ideas, and was altogether a rich and not unmusical tongue. 
But it is surprising how quickly you can learn a language if 
you do nothing else, and are forced either to make yourself 
understood in it or be dumb. My hammock was slung in Mel- 
chora’s room. I was almost continually with him, and every 
day he had in two or three children, with whom I romped and 


THE MAIDEN TRIBUTE. 


99 


chatted ; and by listening to their prattle, and saying the same 
thing over and over again, I soon acquired considerable facility 
of expression. 

Every day, moreover, I paid a visit to the Cacique, who 
seemed well satisfied with my progress, to which he effectually 
contributed, for, being naturally quick of apprehension, he 
helped me when I stuck fast, often grasping the meaning of 
my broken sentences before they were well out of my mouth. 

Ixtil was a man of inquiring mind, and so soon as we could 
fairly understand each other, I had to give a full account of 
myself — whence I came, why I had come to the Phantom City, 
how I contrived to navigate the air, and much else. 

I told him frankly the essential parts of my story, and rather 
to my surprise I found it easier to make the Cacique understand 
how a balloon could be made to float in the air than the curi- 
osity which had prompted a man who had all the world to roam 
in, to undergo so many perils and privations in order to see 
his remote and insignificant principality. Anything relating 
to science interested him greatly, and I had little difficulty in 
explaining to him the use and nature of my thermometer, bar- 
ometer, and sextant, as well as the mechanism of my watch. 

About astronomy Ixtil knew more than I did. The three 
pyramids I have mentioned were built expressly for astronomical 
and astrological purposes : the Phantoms’ arrangement of time 
was decidedly more scientific and complex than that which pre- 
vails in Christian countries, and they had remedies in their 
pharmacopoeia, which I deeply regret that circumstances have 
not yet permitted me to place at the disposal of my English 
colleagues. 

I am now merely describing my adventures. I reserve for 
another and more serious work an account of the history, 
religion, mythology, social economy, and political organization 
of this remarkable people ; yet in order to make my readers 
understand my position in Phantom-land, and the events. that 
afterwards came to pass, I am compelled to bring to their 
knowledge a few facts which, though they concern my narrative 
only indirectly, will, I trust, prove not uninteresting. 

Let me say, then, that, after frequent conversations with 
Ixtil and Melchora, and reading some of the latter’s hieroglyphic 
codices, I came to the conclusion that the Phantoms were an off- 
shoot of that mysterious Toltec race which, after extending its 
sway over the remotest borders of Anahuac, and raising wonder- 
ful temples and cities in nearly every part of Central America, 
silently disappeared and its places knew it no more. The Aztec 
invasion completed their ruin, and those of them who did not 
perish in the struggle became either the slayes or the concubines 


100 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


of their conquerors. Some, however, took refuge in the forests 
and mountains, which are still haunted by their savage and 
degenerate, yet unsubdued descendants, to whom were no 
doubt afterwards added a number of Aztec fugitives from the 
cruelty and oppression of the Spanish invaders. 

A chosen few, probably belonging to the higher and more cul- 
tured classes of the Toltec nation, after long wandering in the 
wilderness, reached the land which I had discovered, and 
founded the state of which Ixtil was the lord. 

This, however, was not the orthodox theory. According to 
the story promulgated by the priests and believed by the 
people, they were descended from the Sun God, who sent two 
of his progeny down to the valley for the express purpose of 
becoming the first parents of the race. The Phantoms were 
thus, as they thought, really and in very fact Children of Light, 
and the country where they dwelt was known among themselves 
and the wild Indians of the forest as the Land of Light. They 
worshiped the sun as their father and creator, adored light in 
every shape as an emanation from him, and the moon and all 
other heavenly bodies as his satellites and servants. 

Fire, however, unless kindled directly or indirectly by the 
sun, they regarded as maleficent ; it was produced and con- 
trolled by the demon gods of the nether world, who, unless 
propitiated in a way I shall presently describe, would utterly 
destroy the Children of Light before the Sun God could come 
to their help. 

On the island were three great temples dedicated respectively 
to the sun, the moon, and the stars, and a fourth which was 
known as the Temple of the Cross. According to tradition the 
last was specially dedicated to the group of stars popularly 
known in Europe as the Southern Cross, but it had more prob- 
ably its origin in the tree and serpent worship practiced by 
nearly every primitive people, the cross in this case being 
merely the rude representation of a tree. This idea was con- 
firmed by the fact that round one of the crosses sculptured on 
the walls of the temple was entwined the figure of a gigantic 
snake. 

Ixtil was too enlightened to place much faith in these legends. 
He knew that the stars and planets were not the satellites of 
the sun, and though he believed in a Great Spirit, he did not 
believe that the sun was a god or that demon deities haunted 
the lower world ; but he had very good reason for keeping- his 
skepticism to himself, and his real sentiments were known only 
to a few of his intimates, among whom I had soon the honor to 
be numbered. 

Though in theory an absolute ruler, the Cacique enjoyed little 


THE MAIDEN TRIBJTE. 


101 


more real power than if he had been the chief of a limited mon- 
archy. He had to defer continually to the pretensions of the 
priests and the superstitions of his people, for religion was a 
great influence in the Phantom State. In the time of Ixtil’s 
grandfather the church was everything, the Cacique the merest 
figure-head ; butMoqui, the Cacique in question, a man of great 
energy and independence of character, after a long and severe 
contest, succeeded in partly freeing himself from sacerdotal fet- 
ters, and his son and grandson followed without flinching the 
example he had set them. 

But the servants of the sun, moon, and stars (as the priests 
called themselves), so far from accepting their defeat with res- 
ignation, were continually striving to regain their former power 
and revive the rites and ceremonies which the three reforming 
Caciques had modified or abolished. The leader of the reaction- 
ary party was Cochitemi, whom, though Ixtil cordially detested, 
he did not think it politic openly to defy. 

One of these demands was for the re-establishment of human 
sacrifices on something like their former scale, for though the 
Toltec ritual was never so sanguinary as that of the Aztecs, 
there had been a time when men and women were slaughtered 
on the altars of Phantom temples. But the Children of Light 
not being of a cruel disposition, the sacrifices were gradually 
abolished — all save one, which Ixtil and his father had, how- 
ever, striven to render as little revolting as circumstances per- 
mitted. This was the propitiatory rite which I have already 
mentioned, and therein, though I knew it not, was involved my 
own fate and that of Ixtil himself. 

According to the doctrine taught by the priests, the tenure by 
the Phantoms of their country, their very existence even, was 
contingent on the yearly sacrifice to the fire demon of that 
which they held most precious. 

This precious object was declared by sacred tradition to be a 
maiden of high degree and marriageable age. 

Above the altar of every temple in Phantom-land was painted 
in hieroglyphic characters a' legend which may be freely Eng- 
lished as follows : 

“ When Light the tribute fails to give, 

The sun-born race shall cease to live.” 

And except Ixtil and a few others nobody doubted that if the 
rite should be omitted the penalty would be required. 

The old method of sacrifice was to throw the living victim 
into the crater of the volcano at the foot of the lake. But when 
Ixtil became Cacique one of his first acts was to ordain that she 
should first be put to death in a way I shall have occasion to 


102 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


describe later on. As it was firmly believed that the least de- 
parture from the prescribed ritual would be punished by a de- 
structive outbreak of the volcano, this proceeding naturally 
caused considerable commotion among both priests and people ; 
but as no evil consequences had so far come to pass, the popu- 
lar discontent was gradually subsiding, and had it not been 
kept alive by Cochitemi and his party, the innovation would 
have met with general acquiescence. 

I am by no means sure, however, that in the course he took 
the Cacique was influenced by merely sentimental considera- 
tions. Notwithstanding the serenity of his temper and the 
mildness of his rule, it never struck me that he had any great 
sympathy for suffering or respect for human life. But accord- 
ing to the tradition in question, sanctioned by the practice of 
ages, it was imperative for the sacrifice to be made by the 
Cacique himself, and without having very fine feelings, Ixtil 
may well have had a personal dislike for a function which in- 
volved throwing a young girl, bound hand and foot, headlong 
into the crater of a volcano. This, and a desire to score a tri- 
umph over the priests, were doubtless his principal motives for 
venturing to modify a rite on which his own life and the very 
existence of the Phantom State were believed to depend. 


CHAPTER XIX. 

THE CACIQUE’S PROMISE. 

The victim for sacrifice was not selected from the people at 
large, but in order, I suppose, to comply with the condition of 
preciousness, from the twenty or thirty families known as the 
Children of the Caciques, all of whom were descended from for- 
mer ruling princes, and who constituted the nobility of the 
country. But out of consideration for the Cacique, who had 
himself to perform the function, his own family could only be 
required to furnish a victim in the hitherto unheard-of, yet not 
impossible, event of there being in none of the other princely 
families a girl with the necessary qualifications— that is to say, 
one who had completed her sixteenth year, and was free from 
bodily infirmity. 

The selection was made by lot. 

The annual slaughter of an innocent child in deference to a 
cruel and stupid superstition, horrified me exceedingly ; and 
when Ixtil began to take me into his confidence and consult me, 
not only as to matters of science, but touching affairs of state, 


THE CACIQUE'S PROMISE. 


108 


one of the first things I did was to beseech him to abolish the 
rite altogether. 

“ That is something like asking Ixtil to abolish himself, and 
very likely the Land of Light, too,” said the Cacique, with a 
smile. 

“You surely do not believe,” I exclaimed, “ that there can be 
any possible connection between the quiescence of the volcano 
and the throwing into it of a poor child’s body ? Volcanoes are 
the outlet of underground fires, and their activity or otherwise 
can no more be influenced by what we do or say than the rising 
or setting of the sun.” 

‘ ‘ That is all very true. The legend is an old wife’s tale, like 
most of our priestly lore, and if you can prevail on the Children 
of Light and the wild men of the woods to think as you think, 
Ixtil will set the priests at defiance and do as you desire.” 

“ The wild men of the woods ! What have they to do with 
it?” 

“ Ah, wise stranger from the east, you have seen many things 
that Ixtil will never behold, and know much that he will never 
learn, but you are not the Lord of Light, and know not the dif- 
ficulties with which he has to contend. The wild men of the 
woods count for much in his calculations ; if he be not prudent 
they may become his most dangerous enemies, and are more to 
be feared than Cochitemi and his fellow-priests, even if they 
should do their worst.” 

“But I thought these wild men of the woods, the Choles, 
Manches, Lacandones, Iztaes, and the rest, were friends and 
allies, and guarded the Land of Light from the intrusion of 
enemies and strangers ? ” 

“It is true, and the City of Light is to them a sacred city. 
At the festival of the Sun God and the propitiatory rite they 
flock here in thousands, and worship devoutly in our temples. 
But our hold over them is entirely religious, and any material 
alteration of our rites and ceremonies they would fiercely re- 
sent. If Ixtil should abolish the sacrifice, as you desire, his 
power over them would be gone ; they would despise him, and, 
with the help of the priests, set up another in his place. This 
Cochitemi knows, and it is the secret of his strength.” 

“But your own people, Cacique, would they not stand by 
you : they seem docile, submissive, and loyal ? ” 

“It is true. Yes, Ixtil’s people are good; but the docility 
you so much admire is his chief difficulty. Their lives are easy 
and peaceful ; they have lost the habit of warfare, and in a fight 
with the fierce men of the woods would go down like ripe corn 
before the reaper. True, Ixtil’s guards would stand by him to 
the death, but they ase very few. To abolish the rite would 


104 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


not only cost him his life, but restore the priesthood to the posi- 
tion they occupied in the time of the Cuzcucano, and instead 
of one human sacrifice a year there would be twenty. Ixtil 
does not think that it would be the part of a wise ruler to buy 
at so great a price the lives of a few girls. They die for their 
country ; what can they do better ? ” 

This closed the discussion ; yet, though I did not think I 
should do much good, I resolved to renew the subject whenever 
a favorable occasion should present itself. 

In the meanwhile I broached another subject which had been 
long on my mind, and in which I took even a greater interest than 
in the sacrificial rite — the fate of my lost friends. I had already 
given the Cacique an account of my adventures in the forest, 
and I now asked him if he thought it was possible that Wildfell 
and the others were still alive.” 

‘‘Possible, perhaps, but not very likely,” was the answer. 
“ Our savage allies make it a rule to let no stranger whatever 
come near the Land of Light, and you are the only one who 
has succeeded in reaching our country. For we know, and 
they know, that our safety depends on our isolation. They 
know that if Christians were allowed to come here with their 
civilization and their creed, our race would perish and our 
religion be destroyed. Tales of Spanish cruelty and oppres- 
sion have reached us even here. No wonder, then, that 
the wild men kill all strangers whom they find in their terri- 
tory — and they do quite right. Still, they do sometimes make 
slaves of their captives, instead of putting them to death, and 
it is just possible that your friends still live.” 

“ I should like much, very much, to know if they do,” I said 
eagerly. 

1 ‘ And if they do, what then ? ” 

“I should like to see them, to have them brought here,” I 
answered, greatly surprised that the Cacique should ask such a 
question. 

“You would! Ixtil is not sure that you would be doing 
right. However, you are a wise man, and these men are your 
friends, and you are his friend — and, yes, he will cause inquir- 
ies to be made. Two moons hence the festival of the Sun God 
will be celebrated ; the wild people will flock hither from all the 
winds, and Melchora, the scribe, and Yaqui, the captain of the 
royal guard, shall ask many questions on your behalf. It may 
be that they will hear something of these wanderers — whether 
they are alive or dead — and then we shall see. Tell Ixtil, as ex- 
actly as you can, whereabouts lay these ruins of which you speak. 
There are many such vestiges of the vanished greatness of our 
race between the smoking mountain and the great river. ” 


THE CACIQUE'S PROMISE. 


IOo 


I answered the question to the best of my ability, illustrating 
my description with a rough sketch of the route I had taken 
and the region I had traversed. 

“ How many days’ journey are the ruins from the point where 
you first sighted the river ? ” asked the Cacique. 

“Eight.” 

“ That is the time you took. A man of the woods, familiar 
with the country, would probably reckon it at no more than 
four days. And the people who carried off your friends were 
Choles, you say ? ” 

“I believe so. At any rate, Pedro, our Indian guide, said 
we were in the Chole country at the time ; but, as he was never 
there before, he may possibly have been mistaken.” 

“ They were more probably Iztaes. But strict inquiry shall 
be made, and after the festival of the Sun God Ixtil may have 
news for you.” 

This conversation made me put on my considering cap. I 
began to think that the Cacique knew more about the fate of 
my friends and our abortive expedition than he chose to avow. 
What did he mean ? Why had he hinted that if they were still 
alive they had better stay where they were ? How could their 
condition become worse by exchanging slavery among savages 
for freedom in the Land of Light ? Or had Ixtil some secret 
motive for desiring them not to join me ? 

But, be the reading of the riddle what it might, my duty was 
clear. Wildfell and the others had lost their liberty in my ser- 
vice, and if, as seemed probable, they still lived, I was bound 
by every consideration of honor and humanity to attempt their 
rescue, even though in doing so I should lose my own life. Yet, 
until I knew more, I could make no move whatever. 

There was nothing for it but to wait until Ixtil had found out 
and thought fit to tell me. In the meanwhile my best policy 
was to spare no pains to keep up our present friendly relations, 
and, if possible, increase my hold over him. In this I did not 
think there would be any great difficulty, for, as the Lord of 
Light frankly admitted, he found me very useful, and had a 
great liking for my company. On the other hand, I could not 
disguise from myself that, in the long run, his partiality might 
not be altogether to my advantage. Phantom -land interested 
me much, and I was anxious to make a thorough study of the 
singular people among whom my lot had been cast. But I had 
no idea of staying among them for the term of my natural life, 
and I feared that when I wanted to leave, the Cacique might 
not be willing to let me go. The more useful I made myself 
the greater would be his reluctance to lose me, and without his 
consent it would be difficult to get away. The balloon was no 


106 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


longer available. True, Ixtil bad sent for it to the village 
where I descended, and it was now in the palace ; but I could 
not put it together, make gas and the rest, without his knowl- 
edge ; the mere proposal of such a thing would be sufficient to 
rouse his suspicion, and, unless I misread his character, he 
would not hesitate a moment to take such measures as would 
render my departure impossible. For I could not hope to hood- 
wink the Lord of Light as I had hoodwinked the corregidor of 
Peten, and Ixtil, though he had so far been kindness itself, pos- 
sessed an acute mind and a strong will, and knew how to make 
himself obeyed. 

As for going away secretly and alone, that was out of the 
question. It would be going to certain death. Better remain 
in Phantom-land until my head was white than fall into the 
hands of the wild men of the woods. And then it struck me 
that I was looking too far ahead. Short views of life are, after 
all, the best. People who take too much thought for the mor- 
row not only embitter their lives with imaginary cares, but fail 
in their purpose, since the eventualities for which they provide 
are generally those which do not come to pass. I should be 
quite content to remain in Phantom-land twelve or eighteen 
months longer. In that time much might happen. I had, fort- 
unately, few kinsfolk at home — none whom my disappearance 
was likely to distress ; and I had particularly requested Dom- 
inick not to count me as dead until he knew I had ceased to 
live. 


CHAPTER XX. 

A SHOCK FOR COCHITEMI. 

In the meanwhile I had no reason to complain of my lot, and 
if I could have reconciled myself to a life-long exile I might 
have done worse than make the Land of Light my permanent 
home. The climate was delicious, for though the heat at noon- 
day was often intense, the mornings and evenings, owing to the 
height of the valley above the level of the sea, were delightfully 
cool, while frequent, albeit not heavy, rains spared the Phan- 
toms the infliction of a rainy season. The trees were always 
green, the crops always growing. 

Imagine an unusually warm English June, refreshed with 
nightly showers and following a forward spring, and you may 
form some idea of the climate of the Land of Light — a climate 
where spring was perpetual and winter unknown, where flowers 


A SHOCK FOR COCHITEMI. 


107 


were always in bloom and fruit always ripe, where men reaped 
and sowed on the same day, and where, though the husband- 
man could not live without labor, he never failed to receive his 
reward, or the earth to yield its increase. 

A perfect climate, some may say ; yet for my own part I 
would rather live in a country where weather and temperature 
are rather less monotonous. You may have too much even of a 
good thing, and I remained long enough in the tropics to sym- 
pathize with the British sailor who, after cruising several years 
in southern latitudes, expressed an ardent wish to go home, “ if 
only to get away from the confounded blue sky.” 

So far, however, my life in the Land of Light had been very 
pleasant, and my enjoyment of the climate was enhanced by the 
novelty of my position and the strangeness of my surround- 
ings. I rose every morning with the sun, and, after drinking a 
cup of delicious chocolate, I would walk down to the lake and 
have a long swim in its pellucid waters. Then back again to the 
palace, breakfast, and study a few hours with Melchora. At 
noon siesta, and in the afternoon I was generally sent for by the 
Cacique, with whom I had long and interesting talks, in the 
course of which I obtained much information about himself and 
his people. 

The Phantoms were, in many respects, an ideal community. 
They had neither judges, lawyers, nor prisons, and knew no 
more of criminal codes than of cold weather. 

‘ ‘ How do you deal with people who take what does not be- 
long to them ? ” I asked the Cacique on one of these occasions. 
(The Phantoms have no word for thief.) 

“ Ixtil’s people never do take what does not belong to them,” 
answered the Lord of Light, with a look of surprise. “Why 
should they? Everybody has all he requires — food, shelter, 
clothing ; what can a man want more ? ” 

“ Money.” 

“ Money ! We have none.” 

It was quite true. The Phantoms did not use money, and 
the little trade that existed was conducted by barter. But as 
by far the greater part of the population lived on the land, and 
as all the peasant families spun and wove their own clothing 
and made their own garments, it was very seldom they wanted 
anything which they did not produce at home. The houses 
were mostly of wood, thatched with maguey leaves ; the men 
were their own builders, and, in case of need, neighbors were 
always ready to lend a helping hand. 

Masons, gold and silver smiths, and other artificers were 
maintained by the State, and the national revenue was derived 
from contributions in kind made by the cultivators of the soil. 


108 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


The articles they produced were exchanged for cocoa, coffee, 
or maize, which was stored, until needed, in public warehouses. 
The gold and silver and tin and copper mines in the mountains 
were worked by the State on the same system. Iron, the Phan- 
toms had none ; their tools and instruments were made of flint 
and bronze. Yet iron machetes, brought by forest Indians, 
were in use ; the Cacique had even a few guns, obtained in the 
same way, so that my rifle and revolver were not quite such 
novelties as I had expected. 

The lordly or cacique families were all landed proprietors, 
and some of them had tenants, but there were no fixed rents ; 
the tenants, after taking what they required for their own liv- 
ing, handed over the surplus to the owners of the soil. 

Laws, in the common acceptation of the word, did not exist ; 
but there were old customs which answered the same purpose, 
and to which everybody religiously conformed. Disputes were 
settled, on the principles of natural justice, by the Cacique, or 
by the head men of the villages in which they occurred, and 
their decisions were accepted without demur. 

There was a regular system of education. Children were 
taught to draw and read the common hieroglyphics, and in- 
structed in their religious duties. 

The population of the valley, so far as I could gather, was 
about a hundred thousand ; considering how long it had been 
settled, and its fine climate, a surprisingly small number. The 
chief cause of this slow rate of increase was undoubtedly the 
shortness of their lives. The Phantoms were so happy, their 
lives so peaceful, their cares so few, that their vitality did not 
receive the stimulus needful for longevity, and they became old 
at an age when Europeans are in the plenitude of their strength. 
It is the same with the Pitcairn Islanders, descendants of the 
mutineers of the Bounty , and the Christianized Indians of some 
of the “ missions ” organized by the Jesuits in certain districts 
of South America. These people, like the Phantoms, have no 
anxieties, live in a fine climate, and enjoy the best of health ; 
yet they begin to age at thirty, and die of natural decay at 
forty. 

The Cacique class, who took part in the work of government, 
and many of whom were scholars, astronomers, architects, and 
priests, lived almost twice as long as the common people. 

Another cause of the comparative paucity of the population 
was a peculiar system of infanticide. I noticed that the Phan- 
toms, though short of stature, were almost invariably well 
made, and sound in wind, limb, and eye-sight. Hunchbacks, 
club-feet, people blind from their birth, there were none. But 
knowing, as a medical man, that a certain proportion of chil- 


A SHOCK FOR COCHITEMI. 


109 


dren come into the world with congenital malformations and in- 
firmities, and being curious as to what became of them, I one 
day asked Ixtil for an explanation of the mystery. 

“ Such children are occasionally born,” he said quietly, “ but 
they always die.” 

“You mean they are put to death.” 

“ They are put asleep and not allowed to waken.” 

“ Oh, but that is horrible — killing poor little children because 
they happen to be deformed. You are a kind-hearted man, 
Lord of Light ; do you think this is right ? ” 

“ Why not ? It is better for children born sightless, or other- 
wise imperfect, to die than to live — better both for themselves 
and others. They can never be happy ; and as they die before 
the beginning of conscious life death has no terrors for them, 
and they do not suffer. They sleep on, that is all. No — Ixtil 
does not think this is wrong ; and it is an old custom.” 

After this nothing more w T as to be said, for in the Land of 
Light old customs, though they might conceivably become ob- 
solete, were never discussed ; but being curious on the point 
(for professional reasons), I asked the Cacique how the children 
doomed to death were sent asleep and prevented from awaken- 
ing. 

“ Very easily,” was the answer. “A cloth, saturated with 
corupa , is laid on the face, and life ebbs quietly away.” 

“ And the victim does not suffer ? ” 

“ Not in the least. If such a cloth happened to fall on your 
face — by accident or otherwise — while you slept in your ham- 
mock, and was not removed within a few minutes, you would 
sleep on for ever, and never be the wiser.” 

“ A strange way of putting it, Cacique,” I answered, rather 
startled by this suggestion. ‘ ‘ I hope no such accident will be- 
fall either of us. But what is this corupa like ? I should like 
to see it. ” 

“ Nothing easier. Ask Melchora. He is learned in drugs as 
well as in hieroglyphics. He doubtless has some. It is distilled 
from a rather rare plant, which grows near the foot of the 
smoking mountain.” 

I reserve a full account of corupa for the scientific work which 
— as I have already mentioned — I propose shortly to publish ; 
but I may mention here that the drug in question, as I after- 
wards found, is a subtle and powerful anaesthetic, producing in- 
sensibility much more rapidly than either chloroform or sulphu- 
ric ether, and that though long-continued inhalation is fatal, 
it may be breathed for two or three minutes with impunity, and 
without causing any other ill-effect than a little nausea and an 
hour’s headache. When diluted with half its bulk of alcohol, 


110 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


the inhalation may be continued eight minutes without danger, 
and insensibility prolonged at pleasure. But if the cloth be 
well saturated, and the mouth and nostrils completely covered, 
a child becomes insensible to pain in thirty seconds, an adult in 
sixty. The most remarkable property of corupa, however, is 
its power of causing local anaesthesia. This property was quite 
unknown to the Phantoms, and I accidentally discovered it in 
a way which I shall presently relate. 

But Ixtil was much more given to asking questions than giv- 
ing answers. The philosophical instruments I had brought with 
me were a never-failing source of interest to him — above all, 
the telescope and the little magneto-electric machine. The 
former was a revelation, the latter a mystery. He insisted on 
having it pulled to pieces ; and after his first alarm — and he 
was very much alarmed — he was always either taking a shock 
himself or giving me one. 

And then a bright idea struck him, which for neither of us, 
however, had the happiest of results. There was nobody Ixtil 
so much detested as Cochitemi, and had the latter been a less 
important personage he would certainly have felt the weight of 
the Cacique’s displeasure ; for the high-priest of the Temple of 
the Sun was not only the head of the reactionary party, but 
proud and conceited to the last degree, haughty in his manner 
even to Ixtil himself, who thought it would be a fine thing, and 
a fitting punishment for his insolence, to astonish Cochitemi’s 
weak nerves by sending a smart current of electricity through 
his fat person. 

The Cacique wanted me to perform the operation ; but on 
the ground that it would not be seemly for a stranger to take 
so great a liberty with so exalted a personage, I begged leave 
to be excused. 

“ Fairhair ” (the name given me by the Phantoms) “ is quite 
right,” said the Cacique, after a moment’s thought. “Every- 
thing considered, Ixtil had perhaps better do it himself. The 
high-priest comes to-morrow with several of his colleagues, an 
hour before sunrise, to consult with the Lord of Light touching 
the arrangements now in progress for celebrating the festival 
of the Sun God. Ixtil would like Fairhair to be here also. 
Come in good time.” 

This request was of course equivalent to a command, and 
even if I had been less curious as to the issue I should have ren- 
dered it due obedience. 

I appeared in the audience chamber punctually at the time 
appointed. A few minutes after the magneto-electric machine 
was placed on the table and I had seen, at the Cacique’s request, 
that everything was in order, the ringing of spear and shield 


A SHOCK FOR COCHITEMI. 


Ill 


announced that the visitors were without, and the next moment 
the mat was drawn aside and Cochitemi, followed by his col- 
leagues, swept into the room. All made the obeisance de- 
nuded by etiquette ; but the high-priest could not have 
borne himself more haughtily if he had been the Sun God in per- 
son. Me he did not condescend to notice, but I saw him cast 
more than one curious look at the machine on the table ; and 
the man being as inquisitive as a monkey, I felt sure that he 
would want to know what the box contained. 

And so he did. The palaver over he turned to Ixtil, and 
with bated breath, but imperious gesture, asked if the Lord 
of Light would deign to inform him what the queer-looking 
box with the yellow handles might contain. 

“ It is a box brought by Fairhair from beyond the mountains. 
It contains a devil in solution,” answered the Cacique, gravely. 

Cochitemi laughed scornfully. Being a priest, he naturally 
did not believe in devils. 

“You do not believe? Look!” said Ixtil, opening the box. 

“Ah, ah ! A crooked piece of foreign metal [iron] and wire 
of gold ! ” said the priest, laughing again. “ Fairhair is a fool 
and his box a fraud. A devil, indeed ; a child’s toy, rather ! ” 

“You think so ! Grasp these handles and you will see ! The 
devil will hold you so fast that you cannot leave go.” 

‘ ‘ Hold Cochitemi fast ! A little box like that ! ” and he 
laughed again, louder than before, the other priests, as in duty 
bound, following his example. ‘ ‘ Fairhair has deceived you, 
Lord of Light, or, perhaps” (taking the handles and laying 
them down again), “the devil is asleep.” 

“Perhaps he is. Ixtil will try to waken him” (putting the 
machine in action). “Try now.” 

Cochitemi, still smiling scornfully, again grasped the handles. 

The effect was electrical in more senses than one. Never did 
poor wretch look so scared. The shock frightened him hor- 
ribly, and his inability to let go the handles made him really 
believe that he was held in demon clutches. He bellowed like 
a bull and cursed like a bargee, his face was distorted with 
rage and pain, and his eyes rolled as if he had been possessed. 
The Cacique showed no mercy, but went on turning as fast as 
he could, and if I had not interposed I know not what would 
have happened. 

“ Pray stop,” I said ; “ if you continue the man will either go 
mad or die of terror.” 

After another turn or two he did so, laughing loudly and vin- 
dictively ; yet Ixtil was naturally a grave man. I had never 
seen him laugh before. He evidently enjoyed his triumph 
over the priest immensely. 


112 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


“There!” he exclaimed, “Ixtilwill put the devil to sleep 
again. Do you believe in him now, Cochitemi ? Why did not 
you let go ? ” 

“This is Fairhair’s work,” gasped Cochitemi, looking as if he 
would like to kill me on the spot. “ He is a wicked wizard, and 
deserves to die. Take care he does not cast his spells over you, 
Lord of Light.” 

With that the high-priest gathered his robes about him, and 
staggered, rather than walked, out of the room, for the shock 
had half terrified him to death. The other priests followed him, 
trembling. 

“He has been rightly punished,” said Ixtil, after they were 
gone. ‘ ‘ But he lays it all on you, Fairhair, and will do you 
an ill turn if he can. You will have to be on your guard. ” 

‘ ‘ I am afraid so. But don’t you think he is quite as angry 
With you, Cacique, only he dared not say so openly ? ” 

“Very likely. But he can do Ixtil no harm, and the Lord of 
Light knows how to protect his friends.” 

I thanked the Cacique warmly for his kind intentions, yet I 
should have been quite as well pleased if he had punished 
Cochitemi in some other way, or, at any rate, punished him 
without implicating me ; for, next to Ixtil, he was the most 
powerful man in the land, and, unless his looks belied him, as 
revengeful as he was powerful. Notwithstanding Ixtil’s belief 
that the high-priest could do him no harm, and his confidence 
that he could protect me, I feared that he would find some 
means of wreaking his vengeance on both of us. As to the 
form it might take I had no idea, but I resolved to seize an 
early opportunity of ascertaining if there was any “old cus- 
tom ” with reference to the treatment of supposed wizards. 


CHAPTER XXI. 

I PERFORM AN OPERATION, AND BECOME A PHANTOM. 

Up to this time my interviews with Ixtil had always taken 
place in the Hall of Audience, and always in the afterpart of 
the day, the reason being that his mornings were occupied with 
affairs of state and the reception of visitors ; for the Lord of 
Light was as accessible as the president of a democratic repub- 
lic. The most obscure peasant had no more difficulty in obtain- 
ing an audience than the high-priests of the temples of the sun 
and the moon. Socially, however, Ixtil was hardly less exclu- 
sive than a Spanish king or a German princeling. None but 


I PERFORM AN OPERATION, AND BECOME A PHANTOM. 113 

members of the lordly families had the right of entree at court, 
and even among them an invitation to Ixtil’s table was con- 
sidered a great honor. Hence, to invite me would have been a 
startling innovation, and though Ixtil had, personally, no more 
respect for court etiquette than for priestly superstition, he was 
too wise a prince to endanger his popularity by departing from 
the usage of his ancestors without sufficient cause ; and .he 
knew, what I did not, that his intimacy with me, and my influ- 
ence with him, were already beginning to excite the jealousy of 
the Cacique caste. 

As I had heard something of this from Melchora, it did not 
surprise me that my intercourse with Ixtil had so far been 
purely personal, and limited to the Hall of Audience. I owed 
my acquaintance with his family to my quality as a healer.' 
One evening, shortly after the electrifying of the high-priest, 
when I called as usual on the Cacique, I observed that he 
seemed much concerned. In reply to my inquiry about his 
health, he said that he was very well, but that the Lady of 
Light was very ill. 

“ Yes,” he repeated, after I had expressed my regret, with- 
out, however, venturing to ask what was the trouble, ‘ ‘ she is 
very ill, and the court medicine man does not seem able to do 
her any good. Ixtil would like Fairhair to see her. He is a 
wise man, and his head is stored with strange learning. ” (It 
was a sign of his favor that Ixtil now nearly always addressed 
me in the third person.) 

There was a risk in complying with this request, for if I un- 
dertook the case and failed, like the unfortunate court medi- 
cine man, my prestige would be seriously compromised ; and, 
for anything I knew, the case might be incurable. 

‘ ‘ If Fairhair could heal the Lady of Light, Ixtil would be 
very grateful ; the mother of his children is very dear to him,” 
said the Cacique, perceiving my hesitation, but not divining its 
cause. 

This appeal it was impossible to resist. Ixtil knew that I 
had been a medicine man in my own country, and, apart from 
considerations of humanity, refusal of his request would have 
done me more harm in his estimation than failure to heal his 
wife. 

So I said I would do my best ; but I assured him that it was 
quite impossible for me to give an opinion — much less guaran- 
tee a cure — until I had seen my patient, and that where so emi- 
nent a practitioner as the court medicine man had failed it was 
not at all probable that I should succeed. 

“Fairhair is sure to succeed,” answered Ixtil, seemingly 
much gratified with my compliance. ‘ ‘ The court medicine man 
8 


114 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


is an old woman. Fairhair is learned in many languages. 
Come ! Ixtil will take him.” 

“ A pleasant prospect,” I thought, as the Cacique led the 
way from the Hall of Audience. “ I have just made an enemy 
of the high-priest of the Temple of the Sun, and now I am go- 
ing to make an enemy of . the leading physician ! ” 

Preceded by the captain of the guard, and escorted by half 
a dozen of his men, we went to the right wing of the palace 
(which was large enough to hold a regiment of soldiers), where 
dwelt the Cacique’s family. It was a part of the interior I had 
not seen before, and consisted of a suite of stately apartments, 
connected by corridors with vaulted triangular ceilings. The 
floors were covered with matting, which deadened sound as 
effectually as if they had been Turkey carpets, and the walls 
were either painted or hung with arras. 

We found the Lady of Light in a room overlooking the lake. 
Its furnishing and adornments were suggestive of refined 
habits and good taste. According to English ideas, however, 
there might be too great a profusion of bright colors and gay 
flowers, and some of the mural paintings struck me as being 
decidedly grotesque. But English ideas do not rule in Phan- 
tom-land. 

My patient was lying on a wicker-couch, surrounded by her 
women — a fair lady, with a white skin, fine dark eyes, and a 
sweet expressive face. 

I was glad to find that the trouble was not so serious as I had 
expected. A tumor above the ear, of the sort technically known 
as a cutaneous cyst, in itself neither painful nor dangerous ; 
yet, as it had grown rapidly, and was involving the neighboring 
tissues and nerves, and on the point of ulcerating, it caused 
considerable local pain and a general disturbance of the system, 
resulting in great measure from loss of sleep. I fancy, too, the 
treatment adopted by the court medicine man, instead of afford- 
ing relief, had served only to aggravate the malady ; for, though 
Phantom practitioners are very fair physicians and acquainted 
with some potent remedies, they are indifferent surgeons and 
timid operators. 

I saw at once that excision was the only effectual remedy, 
and so I told the Cacique. 

“ Will it be painful ? ” he asked. 

I had to answer in the affirmative ; but I explained that the 
operation would be over in a few minutes, and that I could 
guarantee a speedy and complete cure. 

After speaking to his wife, Ixtil asked me to perform the 
operation at once, and I went for my instruments. 

I had already thought of corupa , but hesitated to take the 


I PERFORM AN OPERATION, AND BECOME A PHANTOM. 115 

responsibility of using it, and I was still turning the matter over 
in my mind, when it occurred to me to try its effect as a local 
anaesthetic. I did so in the first instance by applying some of 
it to my own arm, when I found, to my great satisfaction, that 
the corupa rendered the part so far insensible that I could 
prick it without feeling any pain whatever. 

This was enough. Before commencing the operation I laid 
on the tumor a compress saturated with corupa , and let it re- 
main there ten minutes. Then, with a few rapid strokes of the 
knife, I excised the tumor before my patient knew that the 
operation had begun. 

Ixtil and his wife were delighted beyond measure, for the 
tumor, besides causing pain, had threatened to be a great dis- 
figurement, and I was made court medicine man on the spot. 

“ Fairhair was Ixtil’s friend before,” said the Cacique ; “he 
is now the friend of all his family. If they can do anything to 
prove their gratitude, Fairhair has only to speak the word. ” 

‘ ‘ The honor of their friendship is more than a sufficient re- 
ward for any service Fairhair has been enabled to render the 
Lord of Light and his family. But when he thinks of his lost 
friends his heart is sad.” 

‘ ‘ Ixtil has spoken. The order has gone forth ; if these men 
live they shall be brought hither, and the Lord of Light will an- 
swer for their safety.” 

I bowed my thanks, wondering, not without apprehension, 
by what mysterious danger they were threatened, and why the 
Cacique should consider it necessary to answer for their safety 
any more than for mine. Both his manner and his words con- 
firmed my impression that he knew more than he liked to tell, 
and I now felt little doubt that, whether for good or for evil, 
I should see Wildfell and his companions again. Yet why it 
should be for evil I could not imagine, and I failed to extract 
any more definite information from Ixtil. He either answered 
me in riddles, to which I was unable to find a clue, or abruptly 
closed the conversation by saying that so long as he was my 
friend I had nothing to fear, and that my healing of his wife 
had made him more my friend than ever. 

It seemed so, for even after my patient became convalescent 
I was pressed to continue my visits, and if I omitted to call for 
two or three days running I was sure to be sent for and gently 
reproached for my neglect. In fact, most of my time was passed 
in the society of the Cacique and his wife and daughters, for 
there could be no violation of courtly etiquette in the visits of 
the family physician ; and I enjoyed their company as much as 
they seemed to enjoy mine. 

Ixtil bad two sous and two daughters; the former being 


11(5 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


under charge of a tutor, I saw little of them, but the daughters, 
having finished their education and reached the age of woman- 
hood, were nearly always with their mother. Zoe, the elder, 
was sixteen ; Suma, the younger, fifteen. In person they did 
not perhaps conform to English ideas of beauty — the cheek- 
bones were too high, the jaws too long and prominent, the 
teeth, though as white as so many pearls, were too large ; but 
girls with peach-like cheeks, fair skins, dark pathetic eyes, long 
lashes and raven hair, graceful forms and shapely limbs, cannot 
be deemed plain, much less ugly. For my own part, I must 
admit that I found them both handsomer and more attractive 
than the straight-laced and conventional beauties of Europe. 
Their manner, moreover, was gracious and winning, and they 
were well instructed in Phantom lore, played to perfection on 
the marimba , and sang in the sweetest of voices the weird and 
plaintive ballads of their country. 

For, though no people could be freer from care or more uni- 
formly cheerful than the Children of Light, there was a marked 
strain of sadness in their music and poetry. Perhaps it was 
because their lives were so short and the land in which they 
dwelt so beautiful. 

Ixtil was much attached to his family, and passionately fond 
of his girls ; but Suma, I think, was his favorite. More highly 
gifted and more thoughtful than Zoe, she took greater interest 
in her father’s scientific pursuits, and he, on his part, found 
greater pleasure in her company. She was quite an adept in 
astronomy, and spent many hours wfith him in the observatory 
scanning the stars. At his request I gave her lessons in physi- 
ology, natural history, calligraphy, and some other branches of 
European learning. 

All this made life so pleasant, and so fully occupied my time, 
that the thought of leaving the country grew fainter and 
fainter, and at last faded almost entirely from my mind. I 
meant to go away eventually, of course, but the time and man- * 
ner of my going were relegated to the chapter of accidents and 
the far future, 

The festival of the Sun God was a great time in the Land of 
Light. A week before the celebration wild Indians began to 
arrive from every quarter of the compass — yellow and cinna- 
mon-colored men and women, with nothing on worth mention- 
ing, for they were not allowed to bring their weapons to the 
island. Stolid, heavy, and rather brutal countenances had 
these prime vals ; yet they seemed harmless enough, though 
they bore the character of being both cruel and quarrelsome, 
and the authorities were probably wise in depriving them of 
their arms. The purpose of their pilgrimage seemed to be to 


I PERFORM AN OPERATION, AND BECOME A PHANTOM. 117 

get drunk and worship in the temples of the sun and moon. 
The Phantoms were a very sober people — perhaps because they 
ate so little flesh meat — but they placed at the disposal of their 
^guests an unlimited supply of coarse spirits distilled from maize, 
and the savages liked it so well that they were tipsy from morn- 
ing to night, and often from night to morning. 

I was surprised at this, and said as much to Ixtil ; but he 
told me it was done to keep their wild friends quiet (and cer- 
tainly the more they drank the quieter they became), and con- 
firm them in their allegiance to the Lord of Light ; and that, 
as they never got drunk at any other time (not having the 
wherewithal), their annual saturnalia could do them no great 
harm. 

The Phantoms themselves were gay in their own fashion — as 
gay as Neapolitans at Carnival time. 

Dancing and marimba-playing went on all night long. 

Even the lordly families threw off their reserve, and admitted 
all and sundry (except the wild men of the woods) to their 
houses, and feasted all comers. 

There were great functions in all the temples, the greatest 
being celebrated in the Temple of the Sun. The vast building, 
with its cyclopean columns and vaulted roof, filled with a crowd 
of forest Indians — sober for the nonce — Phantom maidens all in 
white and glittering with tinsel, officers of state resplendent in 
garments of feather-work and helmets of gold and silver, priests 
in gorgeous robes pacing slowly round the high altar, on which 
blazed a fire of odoriferous wood, chanting their weird and 
mystic hymns — all this made up a scene which, though bar- 
baric, was one of the most striking and picturesque I had ever 
beheld. 

The festival lasted half a moon, and when all was over, and 
the visitors — who seemed none the worse for their libations — 
had taken their departure, I asked the Cacique if he had caused 
inquiry to be made about my missing friends. 

“ Yes, and Ixtil has information for Fairhair,” referring to a 
report. “ But, first of all, let me ask if one of his friends has 
the faculty of taking out his eyes and putting them in again ? ” 

“ No man can do that, Cacique. Somebody has been speak- 
ing to the Lord of Light with a double tongue. ” 

“Who would dare? According to this report, prepared by 
the captain of the guard, who would rather die than deceive his 
master, the Iztaes have four slaves, captured at the ruined city 
of Atacamenyo, one cinnamon-colored, two white, and one 
swart and hairy. The last is a great magician ; he can remove 
and replace his scalp, and take out and put in his eyes at 
pleasure.” 


118 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


“It is they, it is they!” I exclaimed, excitedly; “and the 
swart man is Fernando. He wears a wig and a pot eye, and 
rumor or misunderstanding has given him two.” 

“These men are Fairhair’s friends, then? Ixtil is glad for 
your sake that they have been saved alive. But what is a wig 
and what is a pot eye ? ” 

When I had explained, Ixtil seemed much amused. 

“You are a wonderful people,” he said. “Why should a 
blind man want to make believe that he can see, or a bald man 
that his scalp is clothed with hair ? If you could give the leg- 
less new limbs, or fill the mouths of the toothless with fresh 
grinders, that would be a fine thing — something to wonder at 
and admire.” 

“We can. I know people who walk with wooden feet and 
whose mouths are filled with grinders that never grew there.” 

“ Fairhair should not talk foolishness to his friend,” said the 
Cacique severely. 

I happen to have a false molar, and without answering a 
word I took it out and held it up. If I had taken off my nose 
Ixtil could hardly have looked more surprised, and as he re- 
turned me the tooth he eyed me closely from head to foot. 

“There is nothing else,” I said, laughing. “My limbs are 
all real. This tooth is the only false thing I have about me.” 

“It is well. Ixtil likes nothing that is not what it seems. 
Still, he is curious to see this creature with the wig and the pot 
eye. The Iztaes demand a ransom ; shall it be given ? ” 

“ Certainly, if the Lord of Light thinks fit and he will do me 
so great a kindness. What do they ask ? ” 

“ Fifty garments of feather- work, and as much fire-water as 
will keep a hundred braves drunk for half a moon. ” 

This was an unpleasant surprise ; feather-work was very valu- 
able, and fifty garments would have represented a heavy sum 
in the current coin of the realm — if there had been any — and 
were, in effect, the equivalent of a considerable quantity of 
cocoa and maize. 

“It is not in my power to provide such a ransom,” I an- 
swered ; “ but if the Lord of Light will oblige him in this matter, 
Fairhair will be his debtor for life.” 

“ If Ixtil obliges him will he oblige Ixtil by becoming one of 
his people and promising to stay in the Land of Light until the 
Sun God shall call him to the land of everlasting content ? ” 

This request took me so completely by surprise that I hardly 
knew how to answer. True, I had no desire to leave Phantom- 
land for the present — had ceased thinking about it, in fact ; but 
to pledge myself never to leave it, never to see England again — 
to become as one dead to Dominick and to all who knew me — 


I AM FOREWARNED, BUT NOT FOREARMED. 


119 


to be as completely cut off from the world as if I were a deni- 
zen of the moon — that was a very different matter. 

“ Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay.” 

9 But it is a question of restoring to liberty, perhaps saving 
from death, those whom I had led into the wilderness. Phan- 
tom-land, if it is not Europe, is much less Cathay, and, promise 
or no promise, I cannot get away without Ixtil’s leave — and 
Wildfell and Gomez — whether or not — yes, I must. It is shame- 
ful to hesitate. 

“ Fairhair agrees, Cacique. He promises to stay in the Land 
of Light until its lord bids him go.” 

“ Its lord will never bid you go, Fairhair,” laying his hand 
affectionately on my head ; ‘ ‘ but he waited not for the promise 
which he was sure would be given. The order has gone forth, 
and when the next round moon rises above the smoking mourn 
tain and beholds her image in the mirrored waters of the lake, 
Fairhair’s friends will be Ixtil’s guests.” 


CHAPTER XXII. 

I AM FOREWARNED, BUT NOT FOREARMED. 

“ The smoking mountain seems to be smoking rather harder 
than usual and — yes — there is a glow about it, as if the hidden 
fires were burning more fiercely.” 

“Fairhair’s eyes are keen, they do not deceive him. The pil- 
lar of smoke, generally so light and thin, is waxing bigger and 
blacker, and — he is right — it is reddened with a tongue of flame ; 
the priests will say that it bodes danger and conveys a warn- 
ing ” 

‘ ‘ A warning of what ? ” 

“ That the time of sacrifice approaches, and the fire-deipons 
demand their due,” said Ixtil, lowering his voice. 

We were on the roof of the palace, which had been laid out 
as a garden, and where the Cacique and his family — sometimes 
sitting under an awning, sometimes strolling about among the 
plants and flowers — loved to spend the cool of the day ; for the 
air at that height was generally fresh, and the view, which em- 
braced the entire valley of the lake and its setting of forest and 
mountain, always fair. 

The Lady of Light was spinning cotton on a distaff, Zoe 
making a garment of feather-work, and Suma learning her 
A B C — comparing the letters I had drawn for her with those 
in my Bible — and, as I could see by the movement of her lips, 


120 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


giving each its name. The Bible, I may mention, was one of 
the three books I had brought with me, the other two being 
“ Shakespeare” and a nautical almanac. 

The Cacique and I were smoking long cigars, in shape some- 
thing like a cheroot, but of the same thickness from end to end, 
and made from tobacco of a deliciously aromatic flavor, with 
Which for fragrance and delicacy neither the choicest Havana 
nor 'the most costly Turkish could fora moment be compared. 

“The time is not far off, then?” I observed, in answer to 
Ixtil’s last remark. 

“ Only two moons. The subject is rather a painful one for 
them,” glancing at the ladies. “ There are fewer maidens for 
selection this year than usual, and they fear the lot may fall on 
their friend, Lula, daughter of the Lord Xixime, whom you 
know.” 

“Yes, and I have seen Lula — a fine, handsome girl — and is it 
really possible that she may ” 

“Have to die? More than possible — probable. There are 
but three to choose from. Ixtil’s heart is heavy, Fairhair. 
Xixime is one of his dearest friends, and Lula is much beloved 
by Suma and Zoe.” 

“ But must it be, Cacique?” I said, deeply pained, “ Why 
not abolish this hideous rite once for all ? Why not begin 
now ? ” 

“ Does Fairhair think Ixtil would not if he could ? Can it 
afford the Lord of Light any pleasure to sacrifice his friend’s 
daughter and his daughters’ friend, and cast her body down 
yonder smoking abyss ? But there is not a Phantom in the val- 
ley, not a wild man in the mountains who, as he sees the pillar 
darkening and the fire glow reddening, does not say to himself 
or his neighbor that the demons are calling for the tribute ; and 
if the rite were not performed, and, above all, if the mountain 
should afterwards vomit flame and ashes, Ixtil and all the 
lordly families would fall victims to the f ury_ of the people and 
the fanaticism of the priests, the wild men would take posses- 
sion of the Land of Light, and its glory would be at an end. No, 
Fairhair, if the lot falls on Lula she must die. But may the 
Sun God avert the omen.” 

The Cacique seemed much disturbed ; so, by way of changing 
the subject, I asked if the mountain ever did vomit flame and 
ashes. 

“ Only very seldom, and never for very long. But there is a 
legend — Fairhair may find some mention of it in one of Mel- 
chora’s old books — there is a legend that many, many ages 
ago, when the Children of Light had not long been settled in 
the valley of the lake, the demons waxed terribly wrath, and 


I AM FOREWARNED, BUT NOT FOREARMED. 


121 


made the mountain vomit streams of fire and throw out clouds of 
ashes, which turned day into night, wrought fearful havoc, and 
destroyed many lives. ” 

The catastrophe may have suggested the propitiatory rite. ” 
‘ ‘ Fairhair speaks wisely, like a man who observes well and 
thinks deeply. This is also Ixtil’s opinion ; yet, albeit the 
priests talk much foolishness, and their sayings are not believed 
by the wise, it must be admitted that since the institution of 
the rite, the pillar of smoke has never been turned into rivers 
of fire, nor has the sun been darkened at noonday.” 

“I don’t think, though, that these are cause and effect. 
There are volcanoes — smoking mountains — in other parts of 
the world which, after remaining inactive during untold cen- 
turies, pour forth floods of fire and shoot up clouds of ashes, 
and then again sink into inactivity for long ages.” 

“ Although no sacrifice is offered ? ” 

“Although no sacrifice is offered.” 

‘ 1 Fairhair, no doubt, speaks the truth ; and if it depended 
on Ixtil’s will the rite should be abolished. But it will never 
be abolished until there is another vomiting of fire and the peo- 
ple have proof that the rite is an empty superstition. Yet even 
then the priests would refuse to yield : they would say that the 
fault was ours, the outburst a sign that the demons. demanded 
still more victims.” 

“ I have never been up to the crater ; I must go one of these 
days. It would not be a very difficult undertaking, I think. ” 
“Not at all ; there are steps and well-made paths. All the 
same, Fairhair had better not make the attempt.” 

“Why? Is there a law against it — or perhaps you think it 
would be dangerous just now ? ” 

“Neither law nor danger. But if Fairhair should be seen 
ascending the smoking mountain the priests would make a 
great outcry ; and, though Ixtil cares little for that, it would 
be well for Fairhair to wait until the day of the rite, and then 
he may accompany Ixtil, see the sacrifice, and look into the 
crater.” 

“ But why would the. priests make an outcry if I went alone ? ” 
“ They believe it is an offense against the Sun God ; and the 
Book of Stars says it is of evil omen to go up the smoking 
mountain at any other time than on the day of sacrifice.” 

“ The Book of Stars ! I never heard ” 

“See the horned moon, looking towards the east!” inter- 
rupted the Cacique. “In fifteen days your friends will be 
here. They are already on their way.” 

“ You have had news of them, then ?” I asked in some sur- 
prise. 


122 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


“ No. Suma and Ixtil read it last night in the stars.” 

“ Is Suma as great an adept in star-lore as her father ? ” 

“Not yet; but she is a promising pupil, and, unlike Fair- 
hair, she does not despise the signs in the heavens.” 

“Nor shall I despise them, Lord of Light, if they reveal the 
truth.” 

‘ ‘ They do reveal the truth ; but it is not always given to man 
to read them aright. The stars never lie, though the gazer may 
err.” 

‘ ‘ What will be the fate of my friends ? ” 

“ It is not quite clear. The stars only yield their secrets to 
long and patient watching, and I have consulted them but once 
about these men. All I can with certainty say is that they will 
arrive safely, yet afterwards be in great peril, from which all, 
save one, will escape.” 

“ Yes ! And who is he ? ” 

“The stars have so far not revealed — perhaps never will 
reveal.” 

“ What say they about me?” 

“They say that Fairhair will be fortunate ; that, though he 
is destined to undergo dangers — as great as any which he has 
yet encountered — he will surmount them all ; and that at some 
time not very remote — when the earth is in the sign of the 
cross — he will render a great service to Ixtil’s family, either by 
saving Ixtil’s life or the life of one very dear to him.” 

“That at least I hope will prove true,” I returned warmly ; 
“ for there is nothing I should so much like as an opportunity 
of showing that I am not ungrateful for the favors showered on 
me by the Lord of Light and his family.” 

“It is good. Ixtil has read Fairhair’s heart, and he knows 
that he speaks with lips of truth.” 

As the Cacique spoke his wife and daughters rose and pointed 
towards the west. The sun was bidding adieu to the valley. 
All bent low and remained in the same reverential attitude 
until the great luminary sank out of sight, leaving behind him 
a trail of glory which, for the few minutes it lasted, illumined 
sierra and lake with a splendor and beauty that seemed to be 
rather of heaven than of earth. 

In this act of devotion or reverence I unhesitatingly joined, 
for I saw no wrong in bowing before the most marvelous mani- 
festation of the might and majesty of the Creator of the uni- 
verse. 

But Ixtil’s predictions, though I listened to them, as I listened 
to all he said, with respectful attention, appeared to me quite 
unworthy of his intelligence ; and he was aware that I put no 
faith in astrology, for we had several times discussed the sub- 


THE LOST ARE FOUND. 


123 


ject, and I had tried to convince him of the impossibility of 
foretelling the future by reading the stars — or in any other way. 
At the same time, I could not treat his forecasts with indiffer- 
ence, for I knew they were colored by his thoughts ; and it was 
quite possible that he had taken this means of putting me on 
my guard and warning me of dangers which he foresaw, though 
I did not. He had spoken in a similar strain before, but always 
in the same oracular vein ; and, as he refused to be more ex- 
plicit, I was in the unpleasant position of being forewarned 
without the possibility of being forearmed. 


CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE LOST ARE FOUND. 

The first of Ixtil’s predictions — if prediction it could be called 
— and the one which concerned me the most, came true almost 
to the letter. 

As we were sitting on the roof of the palace, about a,fort- 
night after the conversation described in the last chapter, and 
within a few hours of the rising of the full moon, Coxoh, the 
little officer who had escorted me to the palace on my arrival in 
Phantom-land, came up to the Cacique and whispered a word in 
his ear. 

“ How l” exclaimed Ixtil, turning to me with a look of tri- 
umph ; ‘ ‘ will Fairhair believe the stars now ? His friends are 
at the head of the lake, and will be here to-morrow morning an 
hour after dawn.” 

I expressed my thanks to the Lord of Light for having so 
faithfully kept his word. I did not, however, say much about 
the stars, for I felt pretty sure that he had taken effectual 
measures to insure the fulfillment of his prophecy. But as he 
seemed quite as pleased as if I had owned myself in the wrong, 
he probably regarded my silence on the point as a 'virtual ad- 
mission of the veracity of the heavenly bodies and the sound- 
ness of his forecast. 

‘ ‘ The men shall be assigned quarters near you and Mel chora,” 
he continued. ‘ ‘ Coxoh will meet them at the landing-place and 
escort them to the palace. Fairhair would, perhaps, like to ac- 
company him ? ” 

To this query I returned an emphatic affirmative, and a few 
minutes after sunrise I met the little officer in the eastern col- 
onnade. 

In order to give the new-comers a little surprise, I arrayed 


124 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


myself for the occasion in the full Phantom costume presented 
to me by the Cacique the day after I had agreed to become one 
of his people — a rich feather-work tunic, white kilt, and gold- 
encrusted helmet. From my waist-belt, composed of alternate 
plates of gold, silver, and bronze, hung a bronze sword, with a 
gold hilt, all too small for my un-Phantom-like hand. So far 
as use was concerned, my old machete would have been a good 
deal more to the purpose. 

I did surprise them most effectually, which, seeing how gor- 
geously I was got up, and that the wanderers had not the least 
expectation of seeing me, was, perhaps, not to be wondered at. 
It was a case of surprise on both sides, for they certainly sur- 
prised me. I never saw such a set of woe-begone, sun-burnt, 
mosquito-bitten tatterdemalions in my life. Wildfell had noth- 
ing in the world on but a pair of ragged cotton drawers, much 
too small for him, and an old hat. Gomez the same, barring 
the drawers, but being a great stickler for propriety, he had 
made himself an airy garment of maguey leaves ; his banjo, 
considerably the worse for wear, was slung over his shoulder, 
and the stump of his tooth-brush stuck proudly in the brim of 
his hat. Fernando had rigged himself up in a kilt (borrowed 
from one of the Phantom boatmen) which looked like a very 
short petticoat ; but his wig was gone, and frequent handling 
had worn away part of the iris of his pot eye, thereby giving 
him a peculiar and rather horrible aspect, especially when, as 
sometimes happened — the sun being very strong — he blinked 
with the other. 

Pedro’s costume I am unable to describe for a very excellent 
reason — he had none. 

I saw at once, as the poor fellows stepped out of the boat, 
that, though struck by the difference between my stature and 
appearance and that of the other Phantoms, they did not recog- 
nize me, and I once thought of keeping them in the dark until 
we got to the palace. But it would have been too unkind ; 
their worn faces showed how cruelly they must have suffered. 
They looked distressed and anxious, too, as if apprehensive as 
to what might befall them. 

“ Glad to see you, old man ! ” I exclaimed, clapping Wildfell 
on the back and taking his hand. ‘ ‘ Welcome to Phantom-land ! ” 

For a moment he looked positively scared, as if he had seen a 
spectre ; then his face became luminous with delight. 

“ It is — no, it is not — yes, it is — it must be, by Jupiter, the 
doctor ! ” he shouted — in his excitement backing so suddenly as 
to capsize little Coxoh (who was close behind him) head over 

heels into the lake. “Who the ? But,” dropping his 

voice, “ is it real, or are you only a phantom ? ” 


THE LOST ARE FOUND. 


125 


“ A Phantom I am, but real for all that, and heartily glad to 
see you, dear friend,” clapping him on the back and taking his 
hand ag&in. 

“ Well, it is no ghostly grip you give, anyhow.” 

“ Por dtos, el Senor Doctor /” broke in Gomez, putting his 
arms round my neck and fairly hugging me. ‘ ‘ I knew it ; I 
knew it. I knew he would turn up again. I felt sure he had 
escaped those infamous Indians, and would find a means of 
rescuing us.” 

As I shook hands with Fernando and Pedro, Coxoh came 
spluttering out of the water, looking, as Wildfell observed, 
“ damped indignant.” 

“ Just apologize to the little chap, will you ?” he said ; “ and 
say how sorry I am for tumbling him over so unceremoniously. 
I fear I have spoiled his fine feathers, though.” 

Coxoh took the apology in good part, and we started on our 
journey up the hill. 

“ I say, you seem to have been having a good time,” observed 
the American, viewing me all over. “Do you know what I 
took you for ? ” 

“What?” 

“ The President of the Phantom republic ; or, maybe, you’ve 
married the Cacique’s daughter, or whatever the head boss of 
the country calls himself, and been adopted as heir-apparent.” 

“Not quite that,” I answered, laughing. “Iam the court 
physician, that is all.” 

“ That’s all ! A doctor is like a gamecock, he always lights on 
his feet. If ever I get back to New Haven, Connecticut, I’ll 
buy myself a diploma and learn to make pills. But, I say, how 
the mischief did you get here ? ” 

“ That’s a long story. I’ll tell you when we get to the palace.” 

“You live in a palace, then ? I say, Fernando, he lives in a 
palace. ” 

“ Naturally, being court physician ; and you are going to live 
in a palace, too.” 

‘ ‘ The deuce we are ! That will be a rise in life and no mis- 
take. Why, we have been living in dog-kennels.” 

“You have had a bad time, then ? ” 

“ A bad time ? Rather ! Don’t we look it ? ” 

There was no mistake about that — they did look it. 

‘ ‘ An awfully bad time,” continued Wildfell, dolefully; ‘ £ worse 
for me than any of the others. Fernando had his pot eye and 
his wig, Gomez his banjo and his tooth-brush— Pedro could 
make himself useful in all sorts of ways— but my knowledge of 
the timber trade, and dye-woods, and book-keeping by double 
entry, together with a considerable facility of expression in my 


126 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


native tongue, did not serve me in the least — were quite thrown 
away, in fact — and if I had not remembered that I once learned 
to dance, and been able to recall a few hymns learnt at the 
Sunday-school in my infancy, I do believe the beggars would 
have made a target of me.” 

“You acted as singing and dancing-master, then ?” 

“ Not much of a master, you bet ! Say slave and you will be 
nearer the mark. Yes, I had to sing and dance every night — 
sometimes all night long — while Gomez strummed on his banjo. 
Fancy a free-born American citizen dancing stark naked before 
a lot of cinnamon-colored savages ! However, I invented a lot 
of new steps, which I mean to patent when I get back to the 
States. ” 

‘ ‘ I felt sure they had taken you prisoners ; my fear was you 
would be horribly ill-used, perhaps tortured to death.” 

“Well, we have been horribly ill-used, and only escaped 
death by accident. It was Fernando who saved us — or rather 
his wig.” 

“I shall never see that wig again,” sighed Fernando, point- 
ing to his bald pate. ‘ ‘ Think what a sight I am ! How can I 
appear at court without hair on my head ? ” 

“Never mind that. Better be without hair than without 
head.” 

“But how on earth could his wig save you?” I asked. 
“You are surely joking ! ” 

“ Joking ? Deuce a bit. It’s only too serious ; isn’t it, Fer- 
nando ? I’ll tell you all about it. Where you were that morn- 
ing I have no idea. Good for you that you had made yourself 
scarce. As for us, we were wakened by a terrific war-whoop, 
and on opening our eyes found ourselves surrounded by a hun- 
dred hideous-looking Indians, all in their war-paint, and point- 
ing at us with their spears. Resistance would have been useless. 
We might as well have tried to resist an avalanche ; and I was 
preparing for my latter end when Fernando, jerking his head 
suddenly on one side — for the spears were getting uncomfortably 
near— his wig tumbled off. 

“The savages fell back with a howl of dismay — they had 
never seen a scalp come off without being touched before — and 
when Fernando clapped the wig on again they were more as- 
tonished than ever, and seemed half scared out of their wits. 

“ Then I had a happy thought. 4 They think you are a wiz- 
ard, Fernando,’ I called out ; 4 pull out your pot eye.’ 

“Which Fernando did, put it back again, and winked at 
them with the other. He was quite equal to the occasion, I as- 
sure you, and showed more resource than I gave him credit for. 

4 4 4 If you understand their lingo, Pedro,’ I said, ‘ tell ’em we 


'HE LOST ARE FOUND. 


127 


possess supernatural powers, and that if they don’t let us alone 
and take themselves off, we will — something bad will happen to 
’em — anything you like, only frighten ’em. ’ 

‘ ‘ As luck would have it, Pedro did understand their lingo, 
and he told them what I said. I am afraid, though, he was too 
much scared to give it proper effect. Anyhow, they were not to 
be gammoned. They did not hack us to pieces, as they thought 
of doing ; but they ordered us to get up, tied our hands behind 
our backs, and, after making prize of our goods and chattels, 
gave the word to march. 

“As Pedro heard afterwards, my threat did not frighten them 
a bit, and they soon got over their first scare ; but these Indians 
have great faith in dreams, and, as it happened, their chief, 
Teakualitzigiti by name — spell it, if you can — had dreamt, a 
few nights before, that he was attacked by fifteen tigers, all at 
once, and was getting very much the worst of it, when a man 
without a scalp dropped down from the sky and drove them 
away. So when Fernando’s wig fell off he thought he was the 
man. That saved our lives ; and Pedro felt sure they would not 
hurt Fernando, however they might treat the rest of us. 

“ Well, after a three days’ tramp through the forest we 
reached our captors’ village. I never suffered so much in my 
life as during those three days, Carlyon. The mosquitoes bit 
like the very devil, and, our hands being tied, we could do 
nothing to defend ourselves. But — what was a thousand times 
worse— we were unable to scratch. It was maddening ; and if 
it had lasted much longer I do believe I should have gone off 
my head. 

“ When we got to the village we were untied and thrust into 
a filthy hut about the size of a big dog-kennel, and containing, 
on a moderate computation, about ten million fleas ; but, being 
at liberty to scratch, we contrived to exist. 

“A few days later a great palaver was held to deliberate 
on our fate. Opinions were divided between flaying us alive 
and making targets of us, but in the end it was decided, by the 
casting vote of Teakualitzigiti, that we should be allowed to live 
on condition of amusing them and making ourselves generally 
useful. 

“ When I say ‘ we,’ I mean Gomez, Pedro, and myself. There 
had never been a question of killing Fernando, but they made 
his life miserable by continual examination of his wig and pot 
eye, which they never tired of making him put on and off and 
in and out. At last, Teakualitzigiti boned the wig altogether, 
had his hair cut short, and stuck it on his own cranium — and 
nice he looked, the hideous rascal. 

“ Pedro fetched and carried, and acted as a beast of burden ; 


128 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


Gomez strummed on his banjo ; and, as I told you just now, 
I hit on the idea of singing hymns and doing the light fantastic. 
It was not what you would call an ideal existence, though ; and 
between being eaten by fleas and mosquitoes, and not having 
enough to eat ourselves, you may be sure we did not wax fat. 
But we had just to submit. Escape was out of the question ; 
we were watched day and night ; and even if we had bolted and 
got a day’s start, the wretches could have tracked and overtaken 
us. I might have bettered my lot considerably by accepting 
Teakualitzigiti’s proposal to marry his sister. But I positively 
refused. I would rather have been flayed alive. Muatzicatan- 
ineliveso (the young lady in question) would have carried off 
the prize for ugliness in a show of ring-tailed monkeys, and she 
seemed to think washing a sin, and wore no clothes worth 
mentioning — you may imagine the rest. 

“ How long we led this life I have no idea. We lost all count 
of time ; and I began to think we should end by becoming as 
brutalized as the noble savages whose slaves we were. You can 
imagine — no, you cannot — how delighted we were when Teakua- 
litzigiti told us he wanted no more of us — that we were to go. 
Where, we did not know, nor much care. Our lives were so 
hard and monotonous that any change would be a relief, and 
almost certainly an improvement. We have had a long tramp, 
though, and must have covered a pretty considerable number 
of miles. Our escort could not have been in a bigger hurry if 
they had engaged to deliver us on a certain day, under a penalty 
for non-fulfillment of contract.” 

“They had.” 

“ How ? Come, don’t be mysterious, there’s a good fellow. I 
hate mysteries. Tell us all about it.” 

“Presently. Here we are at the palace. Let me show you 
to your quarters.” 

The room to which I took them was lofty and spacious, fur- 
nished in the best Phantom style — tables, wicker-chairs, mats, 
and four beautiful hammocks slung all in a row. 

“ Magnificent ! ” exclaimed Wildfell ; “we are in clover here, 
and no mistake. A slight improvement on dog-kennels this. 
Do you know I really feel as if I could sing out of pure gladness 
and gratitude. ” 

“ Do,” I said, never thinking he would. “ Let me hear one 
of your hymns.” 

On this he stood up, and, much to my surprise, rolled out in 
a fine bass voice ‘ ‘ The Old Hundredth. ” 

When he had finished my eyes were filled with tears. 

“ It makes me think of the old home,” I said, rather sadly. 
“ I shall never see it again.” 


THE LOST ARE FOUND. 


129 


“ Of course you will. There need be no difficulty in getting 
away from here. We cannot be far from the settled part of 
Guatemala — Quesaltenango, don’t you call it ? But let us have 
your story ; we can talk about that afterwards.” 

‘ ‘ I guessed it was to you we owed our rescue from the wild 
Indians,” said Wildfell, when I had concluded my narrative, 
“ but I little thought that to save us you had sacrificed your- 
self.” 

“ You put the case rather too strongly, my friend. Besides, 
as I got you into the difficulty, it was surely my duty to get you 
out of it.” 

“Well, I am not quite so sure about that. I guess we got 
ourselves into the difficulty by hunting after that accursed gold. 
If we had gone ahead as you wanted us, it would have been all 
right.” 

‘ ‘ And I am not so sure about that. If we had gone on we 
should have been sure to fall into the hands of the wild Indians 
sooner or later, and in that case, whatever else had become of 
us, we should not have reached the Phantom City. I am very 
much disposed to think, too, that if I had come here in any other 
way — as a ragged wanderer on foot, for instance — I should not 
have lived to tell the tale. I question even if I should have 
been allowed to see the Cacique.” 

“ How so ? They seem a very kindly people, these Phan- 
toms.” 

“ So they are. But they have their own ideas about stran- 
gers. And I had a hint the other day However, there is 

no use troubling about that at present, and I may be mis- 
taken.” 

“ But you are quite safe now ? ” 

“ Quite. For I not only enjoy the friendship and protection 
of the Cacique — in which, I may mention, you are included — 
but my cure of the Lady of Light has brought me several dis- 
tinguished patients ; and I don’t think they would like to lose 
me. One way and another I am in high favor.” 

“Which is another way of saying you are a highly favored 
mortal. Anyhow, you might be a good deal worse off — as a 
slave among the wild Indians, for example. If I had not a 
mother and a sweetheart in New Haven, Connecticut — who 
must be thinking I am a pretty long time about buying my log- 
wood — and I should be throwing away my chance of being 
elected President, I wouldn’t mind pitching my tent here for 
life and keeping you company. I guess I could put these Phan- 
toms up to a thing or two in dye-woods and timber, and turn 
an honest penny for myself at the same time. Seriously, though, 
I am anxious, both for family and business reasons, to get home 
9 


130 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


as soon as may be, and if you can help me in this, yon will do 
me a great favor.” 

“ I will do my best, you may be sure ; though I shall be very 
sorry to lose you, Wildfell. But I must tell you frankly, that 
I don’t think it will be easily managed — not at all without the 
consent and co-operation of the Cacique ; and you must possess 
your souls in patience for a few days, until I find an oppor- 
tunity of approaching him on the subject.” 

‘ ‘ All right, I leave it to you ; only as soon as you can, please. 
Shall we have an opportunity of thanking the President — the 
Cacique I mean — for his hospitality ? ” 

“ Certainly. The Lord of Light will receive you in the Hall 
of Audience an hour before sunset.” 

“With all my heart. I shall be delighted to make his lord- 
ship’s acquaintance. But, I say,” glancing at his ragged draw- 
ers, “this is not exactly a court dress. Could you lend a fellow 
a suit of clothes ? ” 

‘ ‘ Here are some Phantom costumes very much at your dis- 
posal. I have nothing else. ” 

‘ ‘ I don’t want anything else. What would be the good of 
pants and a tail-coat in a country like this ? And I should like 
to see myself in a petticoat and feathers for once in a way. 
Just show me the knack of putting them on, will you ? ” 


CHAPTER XXIV. 

THE SACRIFICE. 

Ixtil, as I knew he would, gave us a gracious reception, for 
the Lord of Light was as courteous as a Spanish grandee, and, 
as Wildfell put it, “ affable at that.” Yet, beyond the exchange 
of a few compliments, and an examination of Fernando’s pot 
eye, and an explanation about the wig, very little passed. Not- 
withstanding the geniality and cheerfulness of his manner, I 
could see that Ixtil was anxious and pre-occupied, and as soon 
as I conveniently could I brought the conversation to a close. 

“Whatever Blueeyes, Blackbeard, and Baldhead want, let 
them have,” he said, “they are Ixtil’s guests. And one of 
these evenings, when there is light of moon, you must bring 
them on the roof. The Lady of Light and her daughters would 
like to make their acquaintance.” 

Of Pedro he took no notice whatever, for the poor fellow was 
a tame Indian, and the Cacique regarded with supremest con- 
tempt all his countrymen who had accepted Christianity and 
bowed to the Spanish yoke. 


THE SACRIFICE. 


131 


I had no difficulty in divining the cause of Ixtil’s anxiety. 
The smoking mountain looked ugly ; the time of the propitia- 
tory rite was at hand, and in a very few days the victim would 
have to be chosen. 

As for the volcano, we were almost in instant expectation of 
a violent outburst. After nightfall we could see the molten 
la va rise nearly to the lip of the crater ; and a day or two pre- 
viously, when, at the Cacique’s request, I made a visit to the 
foot of the mountain, and put my ear to the ground, I could 
distinguish, as it were, the dull reverberations of underground 
thunder ; the trees, moreover, were covered with white ashes, 
the earth trembled, and everything portended an approaching 
catastrophe. 

These ominous signs, the like of which had not been seen for 
ages, caused great excitement among the Phantoms ; and I was 
not surprised to hear, shortly after Wildf ell’s arrival, that the 
priests of the four temples, headed by Cochitemi, had waited on 
the Cacique and demanded that the victim should be chosen 
quickly, and the sacrifice consummated forthwith. It was evi- 
dent, they said, that the fire-demons were very angry, and, 
unless they were immediately propitiated, they, the priests, 
could not answer for the consequences. A disaster such as that 
which took place many ages ago, in the time of the Lord of 
Light, Latacungas, might come to pass at any moment. 

‘ ‘ Why should the fire-demons be angry ? ” asked Ixtil, sar- 
castically. “They are surely very unreasonable; they have 
had their due : the maiden tribute has always been paid. Can 
you priests, who know everything in heaven and earth — the 
thoughts of men and the mind of the Sun God — can you, who 
pretend to be his servants, explain this mystery ? ” 

“It is true that the maiden tribute has been paid, but the 
fashion of it has been changed,” answered Cochitemi; “the 
victim is no longer thrown to the demons alive. Perhaps that 
is the reason of their anger.” 

“ The high-priest’s words are as wind. Had the change vexed 
the demons they would have shown their anger at once. For 
nearly a man’s lifetime have they been content with a dead 
body ; why should they now want a living maiden ? ” 

“ The Lord of Light is the wisest of men,” returned Cochi- 
temi, with mock humility and a profound obeisance. “It is 
he, not the priests of the four temples, who knows the thoughts 
of gods and devils, and can read the language of the stars. 
But the fire-demons are never angry without a cause, and if 
the present cause be not that which Cochitemi, in his igno- 
rance, has suggested, it can only be the presence of these stran- 
gers.” 


132 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


“ Wrong again. These strangers have only just arrived, and 
the smoking mountain has shown signs of anger for three 
moons.” 

“The Lord of Light forgets that before Fairhair came it 
showed none whatever, and that since the coming of his four 
friends it has vomited ashes, and the smoke has become blood- 
red. And Ixtil will remember that when Fairhair first came 
Cochitemi warned him that if the stranger were let live the 
Lord of Light would risk the forfeiture of the Sun God’s favor. 
Is it not written in the Book of Stars? If these other 
men ” 

“ Nonsense !” interrupted Ixtil, angrily. “If Fairhair had 
not found favor in the Sun God’s sight, he would not have pro- 
tected Fairhair during his voyage through the air, and allowed 
him to reach the Land of Light in safety. And Blueeyes, 
Blackbeard, and Baldhead, they also enjoy the favor of the Sun 
God. The time of sacrifice shall be hastened as you desire. 
Let it take place seven days hence, and then perchance the fire- 
demons will cease from troubling and the smoking mountain be 
at peace. ” 

I learnt this from Melchora, who, in his capacity as priest 
and scribe, was present at the interview. From the first Mel- 
chora had been friendly, and quite ready to tell me all he knew 
of the ancient history of the country, hieroglyphics, and the 
rest ; but about the existing state of things, the relations of 
Ixtil with the priesthood and the lordly families, and what may 
be called the inner politics of the day, he had shown great re- 
serve ; and, thinking that in this regard he was merely con- 
forming to superior orders, I did not like to press him with 
questions which, as likely as not, might be reported to the 
Cacique, who, though he often consulted me, had never, as I 
now saw, given me his entire confidence. 

Latterly, however, Melchora had grown more communicative 
— acting perhaps on a hint from Ixtil — and, without any solici- 
tation on my part, he told me all that passed at the interview 
which I have described. It gave me an unpleasant surprise ; 
for, though I had already gathered that old-fashioned Phantoms, 
especially among the priests, objected to my presence in the 
country, I never thought that an attempt would be made to 
render us responsible for a possible eruption of the volcano. 
True, the Cacique was our friend, and he had stood up for us 
nobly, like the fine fellow he was. But would he be able to 
withstand a movement in which nearly the whole of the priest- 
hood and many of the lordly families were taking part, since the 
opposition included, not only the fanatics of both orders, but 
all whom my rapid rise in Ixtil’s favor had rendered envious, 


THE SACRIFICE. 


133 


or who thought my influence was making him more than ever a 
despiser of old customs ? 

Certainly, a powerful combination, and if the Cacique could 
not withstand it, what then ? 

I put the question plainly to Melchora. 

‘ ‘ Much would depend on the behavior of the smoking moun- 
tain,” he said, “ for, though the country people took little in- 
terest in public affairs, they were deeply religious, and stood so 
much in awe of the fire-demons, that they would back up the 
priests in any measures they might deem necessary to propitiate 
the demons and prevent a catastrophe.” 

“ Which means, in effect, any measures Cochitemi may deem 
necessary ? ” 

“ Cochitemi is the high-priest of the Temple of the Sun, and 
his words have great weight.” 

“And in that case you think the Lord of Light would be 
forced to yield ? ” 

“Fairhair is a man of understanding ; he must draw his own 
conclusions.” 

This meant that Melchora did think so. 

‘ ‘ If the Lord of Light were forced to give way, what thinks 
Melchora would be our fate ? ” 

“ Cochitemi is deep and wily ; who can fathom his thoughts ? ” 
answered the scribe with a smile. ‘ ‘ But Fairhair is a great 
physician ; he came down from the sky ; no harm is likely to 
befall him. ” 

‘ ‘ But my friends ? ” 

Melchora did not answer. 

“What is the Book of Stars?” I asked. “I have heard it 
mentioned before. Why did Cochitemi refer to it ? ” 

“The Book of Stars is one of the oldest codices we possess, 
and written in pictures which few can understand. The 
writer was Mediotaquel Cuixlahuaecan, a renowned seer and 
priest, whose sayings are held in high honor, and many of whose 
predictions have been fulfilled. The highly orthodox, and all 
the priests, hold that the Sun God spoke through his mouth, 
and that if his warnings are neglected evil will befall. It is in 
the Book of Stars that are found the words inscribed in the 
Temple of the Cross and the other temples : 

* When Light the tribute fails to give 
The sun- horn race will cease to live.’ 

“ He has also said : ‘ If ye would live, the stranger that comes 
amongst you shall surely die,’ and this was doubtless the pas- 
sage to which Cochitemi referred. ” 

“ But I thought there never had been any strangers — that I 
was the first.” 


134 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


“So you are.” 

“ How then ” 

‘ ‘ Is Fairhair alive ? Well, if he had not come in an air-ship and 
excited the curiosity and won the friendship of the Lord of Light, 
Melchora thinks it very likely that he would not have been 
alive. Cochitemi wanted him to be put to death at once, quot- 
ing, in support of his demand, the sayings of Mediotaquel Cuix- 
lahuaecan ; whereupon Ixtil, who has a subtle wit and not 
much reverence either for the seer or his book, answered and 
said that the stranger should surely die. ” 

“The Lord of Light is a great and good prince,” said the 
high-priest. “ How and when shall this long-legged interloper 
die ? ” 

“ Of old age ; and so shall the saying of Mediotaquel, the 
seer, be fulfilled.” 

“ And then was Cochitemi very wroth, and went away curs- 
ing.” 

Now I understood why Ixtil had deprecated the coming of my 
friends, and I began to fear that I had got them out of the 
frying-pan into the fire. His reason for acceding to my request 
was probably quite as much a desire to strike a blow at the in- 
fluence of the priests as to oblige me ; and if no harm came of 
our presence in the country the chances were greatly in his 
favor, for the Cacique was both strong and resolute. But in 
the event of the fire-demons taking sides with Cochitemi and 
his abettors the victory might be with the latter, and that, I 
could not disguise from myself, meant ruin for us all, Mel- 
chora’s assurance to the contrary notwithstanding. I was the 
very last person the high-priest was likely to spare. 

“Is there anything in the Book of Stars about wizards ?” I 
asked the scribe, after a moment’s reflection. 

“Wizards? Would Fairhair like to know? Here is the 
codex,” reaching a roll of manuscript; “let us see. This is 
Ixtil’s copy. There are only two other copies in existence — one 
belonging to the Temple of the Sun, the other to the Temple of 
the Stars. Wizards, wizards ! ” turning over the leaves. “ Yes, 
behold ! ” 

“ What does the passage say ? ” 

The pictures were so different from the modern characters 
that I could make nothing of them. 

“ The passage runs thus : ‘ If the man who is a wizard and 
has dealings with goblins and gnomes be not cast alive to the 
fire-demons, the smoking mountain shall vomit red water and 
send up clouds of white ashes, and the Land of Light will be 
covered with thick darkness at noonday. ’ ” 

I said no more, but I had my thoughts. This passage was 


THE SACRIFICE. 


135 


doubtless in Cochitemi’s mind when he stigmatized me as a 
wizard, and if he got his way I should have to take an involun- 
tary header into the crater of the volcano. Not a very agree- 
able outlook. But I hoped the fire-demons would have a lucid 
interval, and so give Wildfell and the others a chance of getting 
away. Once they were gone I should not have much to fear. 
Ixtil would find it easier to protect one than five, and my pro- 
fessional successes were making me many friends. 

For the present, how r ever, I decided to keep my own counsel. 
It could answer no useful purpose to alarm Wildfell prema- 
turely, and as the priests were too much taken up with prepara- 
tions for the sacrificial rite to have time for anything else, there 
was no immediate danger. 

Two days later the victim was chosen, and, to the great grief 
of Ixtil and his family, the lot fell upon Lula. The Cacique felt 
the blow keenly, for, though in a measure foreseen, he had 
hoped even against hope that his friend’s child might, after all, 
be spared. 

“If that cursed mountain would only be quiet,” he said, 
fiercely, “ Ixtil would risk everything, and set Cochimeti and 
his infernal crew at defiance ; they are the true fire-demons.” 

But the mountain would not be quiet. Every day there rose 
up from the crater a pillar of black smoke, which, reflecting the 
seething lava below, was turned at night into a pillar of lurid 
fire, and the top of the volcano was white with ashes. 

Wildfell was very tender-hearted, especially where women 
were concerned, and when I told him what was going to happen 
he got quite excited and proposed a rescue. 

‘ ‘ Poor girl, poor girl ! Why, these Phantoms are worse than 
the wild Indians ! Let us carry her off and get out of the coun- 
try. We can do it — I am sure we can.” 

Nothing would have pleased me better if it could have been 
done. But rescue, as I succeeded in convincing him, was quite 
out of the question. The mere attempt would have insured our 
immediate destruction and profited poor Lula nothing at all ; 
and, acting on a hint from Ixtil, I advised Wildfell and the 
others to show themselves as little as possible pending the cele- 
bration of the rite. In the excited state of the volcano and of 
public opinion, and with so many forest Indians flocking into 
the city, the least indiscretion might lead to unpleasant conse- 
quences, the more especially as the occasion, being not one of 
rejoicing, the visitors were not allowed (until after the cere- 
mony) their wonted solace of fire-water. 

The sacrifice was to take place after dark, and Ixtil, as he 
had promised, allowed me to witness the celebration in the 
Temple of the Cross, and accompany the funeral procession to 


136 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


the crater of the volcano. The only condition he made was that 
I should put on a red mantle and keep myself rather in the 
background until we reached the foot of the smoking mountain, 
where I might be as near him as I liked. 

Slipping in with the crowd, I found a place where I could see 
without being seen — in the shadow of one of the cyclopean col- 
umns of rough-hewn stones that supported the roof of the 
temple. 

Anything more gloomily impressive than the scene around me 
it would be difficult to imagine. Except the half -naked In- 
dians, whose faces were hideous with paint, the worshipers 
wore scarlet mantles, and every head was uncovered. The tem- 
ple was lighted with torches, held by the men of the Cacique’s 
guard, who were ranged in the form of a cross. A raised plat- 
form, stretching from side to side of the vast building, sup- 
ported the altar — a square stone slab — on each corner of which 
a flaming torch was planted. In front of the altar stood a 
couch, in shape like a bier, and covered with a fair white 
shroud. 

For a few minutes intense ‘silence prevailed, all heads being 
bowed, as if every one was offering up an inward prayer. Then 
were heard the strains of a solemn dirge, sung as it would seem 
by an invisible choir, and a procession of priests, emerging 
from the shadows, marched solemnly across the platform, and 
ranged themselves on each side of the altar. Their scarlet robes 
were wrought with grotesque devices in black ; round their 
necks were twisted the skins of green tree snakes, so well pre- 
served that they seemed alive ; their feet and heads were bare 
— faces white with powdered ashes, and each man carried a 
torch, which burnt with a blue light. 

Again the dirge, and from the other side of the platform 
came Ixtil, also robed in scarlet and uncovered, followed by 
Lula, dressed in white, and crowned with flowers. The poor 
girl, who was supported by her father and brother, walked 
erect and bore herself bravely, but her lips twitched convul- 
sively, and her face was as pale as death. 

They led her to the couch, into which she sank, and as, with a 
wild convulsive movement, the victim covered her face with her 
hands, Ixtil dropped the fatal cloth over her head. The dirge, 
which for an instant had subsided, rose once more ; yet higher 
still rose a long, sobbing wail, heart-breaking in the intensity 
of its sadness, in which the worshipers gave vent to the feel- 
ings they were no longer able to contain. 

After another spell of silence, broken only by the half-sup- 
pressed sobs of the women, the Cacique gently raised the cloth 
and handed it to the high-priest. 


THE SACRIFICE. 


137 


All was over. The corupa had done its work. 

Then Ixtil, whose face was hardly less pallid than that of the 
dead girl, drew the shroud over the body, and four priests, 
coming before the altar, raised the couch on their shoulders, 
the guard formed in two lines, and the bearers, preceded by the 
Cacique, and followed by the entire body of priests, holding 
aloft their blue torches, and singing a wild requiem, walked 
slowly down the middle of the temple, escorted by the guard. 

In this order — the blue and red torches still burning — the 
priests still singing, the procession moved towards the lake. 
When it reached the shore the body was placed in a large boat, 
where, by Ixtil’s favor, room was found for me. Most of the 
priests, the guard, a number of high personages, and officials 
came after in other boats. All sounds, save the dip of the pad- 
dles and oars in the water, were now hushed, and we glided 
swiftly through the brooding night towards the smoking moun- 
tain, over which the pillar of fiery smoke threw a lurid and 
fitful glare. 

At the foot of the volcano all disembarked. The four priests 
again raised the victim’s body on their shoulders, and the pro- 
cession formed in the same order as before. 

We mounted slowly, keeping time with the melancholy chant 
intoned by the priests. But the road being wide and well 
graded, the ascent w r as easy. An hour’s walking brought us 
nearly to the top ; but the higher we rose the fouler became 
the air, and, in order to avoid being stifled with sulphurous 
fumes and carbonic acid gas, we had to work round to wind- 
ward. 

At last we reach the upper side of the crater, and can see the 
molten lava, in a state of violent agitation, rising and falling 
not more than twenty feet below us. A little higher and it would 
be over the lower edge. Had the wind not been pretty strong, 
and so kept the smoke well away from us, we should have been 
unable to get near enough to complete the rite. 

The four priests bring the bier to the brink. The other priests 
and the guard stand behind them holding their torches aloft. 
Ixtil, his livid face damp with sweat, takes the body in his 
arms. It is almost too much for him, for, though a strong man, 
he is overcome with excitement and emotion. I offer to help 
him. 

“ Back, Fairhair ! ” he exclaims, with a bitter laugh. “Know 
you not that if the Lord of Light does not this with his own 
hands the demons will refuse the sacrifice ? ” 

Then, by a great effort, poising the body on his uplifted 
hands, he throws it headlong into the crater. But in doing 
this he overbalances himself, and had I not caught his kilt as 


138 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


he fell, the Cacique would assuredly have followed Lula to her 
fiery grave. 

“Thanks, Fairhair!” he says, grasping my hand. “You 
have saved Ixtil’s life ! The stars spoke truly. The sacrifice 
is consummated. Let us be gone !” 

And then we hurry down the smoking mountain — the torches 
are quenched, and in darkness and silence we row swiftly away 
as from a place accursed. 


CHAPTER XXY. 

WILDFELL WANTS TO GO. 

“ We are saved ! ” I exclaimed, as Wildfell and I stood on the 
great colonnade watching the splendid display of light and color 
which always accompany sunrise in the tropics. “We are 
saved ! At any rate, for the present.” 

“Saved ! What are you rambling about, Carlyon ? ” 

“Don’t you see that the volcano has almost stopped smok- 
ing ? ” 

“ I do, and I am rather sorry for it. I should like to see a 
good rattling eruption for once in a while — streams of molten 
lava hissing into the lake, clouds of cinders darkening the air — 
a regular flare-up, you know. But what has this to do with our 
being saved ? You are a good deal deeper read in theology than 
I am if you can see any connection between a volcano and sal- 
vation — rather the other way, I should think.” 

“I did not mean saved in that sense, as you well know,” I 
answered a little tartly. “ But just let me tell you this, Wild- 
fell : if the volcano had gone on smoking, and spouting cinders, 
we should have stood a pretty good chance of being chucked 
into the crater.” 

“ Come now, no mysteries ! I don’t like ’em, as I think I told 
you. They make my hair stand on end and harrow my soul ; 
that’s why I never read tales of mystery and murder. I prefer 
imagination and humor. Tell us what you mean, like a man, 
there’s a good fellow.” 

I told him. 

“ Well ! may I And do you really think that if the vol- 

cano had gone on fumigating, that hobgoblin of a high-priest — 
Catchimatit, don’t you call him ? — that the old villain would 
have had us cooked in the crater ? ” 

‘ ‘ He would have tried, undoubtedly ; and I very much fear 
he would have succeeded. ” 

“And if the volcano should flare up again — and it may do 


WILDFELL WANTS TO GO. 


139 


any moment, you know — would he still try it on, do you 
think?” 

‘ ‘ I have no doubt he would. ” 

“Well, then, the word is, ‘Quick march, boys.’ Interview 
your friend Ixtil right off, please, and get us leave of absence. 
I have a decided objection to being roasted in red-hot lava. 
And if you are wise you will go with us, Carlyon. ” 

“ I cannot. I have given my word to stay. As for you and 
Fernando — I don’t think Gomez and Pedro much want to go — 
I shall speak to the Cacique in the course of a day or two. 
Leave it to me. I will lose no time. For though the volcano is 
at rest now, there is no telling how long it may remain so, and 
I should be sorry for you not to get safely away.” 

“ So should I — very. You will bring the matter before the 
Lord of Light as soon as possible, then ? ” 

“ Certainly.” 

And a few days later I did. 

But to my surprise and annoyance I could not persuade Ixtil 
to accede to my request Though for his position and opportuni- 
ties wonderfully enlightened, he was not quite as free from su- 
perstition as he sometimes fancied and pretended, and it was 
evident that the stoppage of the eruption so soon after the sacri- 
fice had made a -deep impression on his mind. He could not 
help believing that the one event had some connection with the 
other, and he thought the volcano would remain quiet for at 
least a twelvemonth, probably for years. 

He did not, however, attempt to deny that if the eruption had 
continued the priestly party might have got the upper hand, in 
which event my friends would have been in danger. 

“ But that is all past,” he said. “They are now quite safe. 
Ixtil can guarantee their safety.” 

“All the same,” I urged, “the priests — and everybody else, 
probably, but you and me — must be confirmed in the idea that 
the fire-demons can be propitiated, and the peril of an eruption 
averted by sacrifice ; and should there be another outbreak, 
they may demand another sacrifice.” 

“ Fairhair speaks truly ; but there will not be another out- 
break. Besides, how can these men go ? The wild people would 
destroy them.” 

“ Not if the Lord of Light would deign to give my friends an 
escort and a safe conduct.” 

“ That cannot be, Fairhair. There are other reasons. It is 
impossible, impossible. ” 

“ Must they then remain here all their lives ? Blueeyes has 
a mother, and if she thinks him dead, her grey hairs will be 
brought with sorrow to the grave. ” 


140 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


‘ 1 Is that indeed so ? Ixtil will reflect. But no, it is impos- 
sible — for the present. Let Blueeyes have patience.” 

When Wildfell heard this he was very much cut up. He had 
counted on getting away at once. 

“Poor mother!” he exclaimed sadly; “and Grace — they 
will think I am lost, and mourn me as dead. I’ll tell you what 
it is, Carlyon. I mean to go soon — whatever this Lord of Light 
says — even if I have to go alone. ” 

“ I would not advise you, Wildfell. You might as well jump 
into the crater at once. It is hard, I know, but your best course 
is to wait quietly here. Ixtil never acts without good reasons, 
though he does not always disclose them ; and I feel sure that 
in the end he will not only let you go, but help you in going. 
And your mother and Miss Grace will surely not despair. You 
have not been away a year yet — and that is no long time for 
exploring a country.” 

“ Well, I will try to be resigned. And I did tell them, when I 
wrote last from Campeachy, that they must not be surprised if 
they did not hear from me for a pretty long time. But what can 
I do in this very beautiful, but dead-alive country ? There does 
not seem to be much opening for trade, or demand for notions. ” 

“ Learn Phantom and fish.” 

“ Well, I guess I will. Got any hooks ? ” 

“You can have any quantity. Phantoms are expert fishers.” 

“Good for the Phantoms. But a fellow cannot always be 
fishing. Got any books ? ” 

“ Yes, the Bible and Shakespeare, which I shall be glad to 
lend you.” 

“ Thank you. They happen to be just the two books I know 
by heart. But all the same it will be pleasant and profitable to 
look at them occasionally — by way of refreshing my memory, 
you know.” 

Gomez passed his time strumming on his banjo and picking 
up Phantom, in which he soon became tolerably proficient, and, 
being a lively fellow, made himself many friends. Fernando, 
however, would do nothing but loaf about and drink, and he 
ended by getting himself into serious trouble — went into the 
Temple of the Sun smoking, spat on the floor and insulted a 
priest. He was arrested at once and taken before Ixtil, who 
was naturally very angry, and sent for me. 

“Tell Blackbeard,” said the Cacique, “that in spitting on 
the floor of the temple he has committed a crime which the 
priests, if they had their way, would punish with death. But 
in consideration of his ignorance he is pardoned. Let him, 
however, beware. The priests never forgive ; and if he com- 
mits another such offense Ixtil will leave the fool to his fate. ” 


WILDFELL WANTS TO GO. 


141 


Three days latter Gomez came to me with a white face. 

“ Fernando was in a fit,” he said. “ He had left him sleep- 
ing in his hammock, where he sometimes lay all day long, and 
when he returned found him, as he thought, sleeping still. But 
do as he would he could not rouse the man, and feared greatly 
that something was the matter.” 

“ Yes,” I said, when I saw Fernando’s face and touched his 
hand ; “ something is the matter. He is dead ! ” 

“ Dead ! Impossible ! He was quite well this morning.” 

“ That may be. How long was he alone ? ” 

“ Several hours. Ever since this morning.” 

After examining the body carefully, I came to the conclusion 
that the man had not died a natural death. I felt almost cer- 
tain, indeed, that he had been killed by corupa , administered 
while he slept. 

I reported the case forthwith to the Cacique. 

‘ ‘ Ixtil is not much surprised, ” he observed, gravely. ‘ ‘ Said he 
not that the priests never forgive ? And spitting in a temple 
they regard as a deadly insult to the Sun God and themselves.” 

“ You think Cochitemi has done this, then ?” 

‘ ‘ Fairhair need not ask. He knows the high -priest. But as 
for this Blackbeard there is nothing to regret. He was a 
drunkard and a fool, and deserved not to live.” 

“Well,” said Wildfell, when I repeated the remark to him, 
“ Fernando was a scallawag, I admit. All the same, it is rather 
hard law to kill a fellow for expectorating in the wrong place, 
and I am sorry he has gone. I was the means of bringing him 
here, and he might have helped me to get away. The man had 
his good points, too, and he was company. Yes, doctor, I am 
sorry these wretches have done for Fernando.” 

“ So am I. Especially as they may be doing for some other 
body in the same way.” 

“That old hobgoblin again, eh! You think we had better 
keep our weather eyes open ? ” 

“ I do indeed. There are no doors, only mats ; and nothing 
is easier than for anybody — say an emissary of Cochitemi — to 
slip in after nightfall, when we are all asleep, and drop a cloth, 
saturated with corupa , over a fellow’s head. ” 

‘ ‘ And then ? ” 

“He would have slept his last sleep.” 

“Die without knowing it, as poor Fernando did. Yes, it 
behooves us to be on our guard. What do you propose ? ” 

‘ ‘ I will shift my hammock here, and we will watch through 
the night, turn and turn about.” 

“Agreed. And I promise you that if I catch one of those 


142 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


priestly hobgoblins prowling round he’ll have waked his last 
wake.” 

But, as often happens in life, the danger we feared did not 
come in the shape we expected. ” 


CHAPTER XXVI. 

SUMA’S DANGER AND IXTIL’S OATH. 

A few weeks afterwards typhoid fever broke out, and wrought 
great havoc among the people of the island. It came suddenly, 
like a bolt from the blue, and struck down its victims right and 
left, without respect either for quality or rank. The cacique 
families, who suffered severely, were soon in a condition of 
utter panic ; and the native physicians, though, as I have 
already remarked, fairly skilled in medicine, quite lost their 
heads. 

Ixtil appealed to me, and I willingly did all I could, and 
effected several cures ; but I told him plainly that the trouble 
arose from bad sanitary conditions, and that unless the cause 
were removed the pest would continue. He gave me full power 
to do whatever I thought necessary, and I went to work with a 
will. 

It is not necessary for me to say more about the measures I 
adopted than that they brought me into conflict with Cochitemi, 
and I had to set him completely at defiance. 

In the end, these measures were effectual ; but the epidemic 
was a great misfortune in every way : it not only diminished 
Ixtil’s influence by carrying off some of his most devoted sup- 
porters, but led to a revival of many obselete superstitious 
practices and an outburst of fanaticism, which greatly in- 
creased the power of the priests. 

Nor did the evil end here. 

One day, when I called on the Cacique to present my report 
and discuss those of the native physicians, I. perceived, before 
either of us spoke, that something was seriously wrong. So 
far, whatever he may have felt, Ixtil had borne the trouble 
bravely. Even the death of his dearest friends had neither 
disturbed the repose of his manner nor ruffled the serenity of 
his temper. But now his face was hard set, and his look that 
of a man who has received evil tidings, or is bracing himself for 
a struggle with some terrible misfortune. 

I waited for him to speak first. 

tl Does Fairhair know what has come to pass?” he asked, in 


SUMA’s DANGER AMD IXTIL’S OATH. 


143 


a hollow voice. “ Cotocachi ” (a physician) “ reports that there 
died last night two of the four surviving maidens who are of 
marriageable age this year.” 

“ Poor girls ! I am very sorry,” I said, not for the moment 
grasping the import of the remark. 

“Does not Fairhair understand?” he continued, almost 
fiercely. “ There are only two left — and one is Suma.” 

“ Gracious Heaven ! And, if the other dies ” 

“ Suma must be the next victim, and Ixtil — oh, Spirit of the 
Sun and Light of the Stars ! — Ixtil will have to destroy his own 
child ! ” and the Cacique, covering his face with his robe, sank 
-with a moan into his chair. 

My agitation was hardly less than his. “ Suma, my pupil, 

my so bright, so intelligent ! Suma to be sacrificed — killed 

by her own father — thrown into the volcano ! Good God ! it 
could not — should not — must not be ! ” 

“ But there is another maiden, Lord of Light, and so long as 
she lives the lot cannot fall on Suma. ” 

“True! Yet think you she will live? Even if the fever 
spares her, Cochitemi will not.” 

“But cannot she be watched, protected, guarded, until — 
until ” 

“Napo, the father of Cara, is the high-priest’s friend. His 
house is always open to Cochitemi. You will see. And look 
there ! ” pointing to the volcano, which was throwing up a cloud 
of black smoke. “ If that goes on there will be danger — danger 
for all. The people are in a humor to do anything the priests 
bid them, and the priests will demand sacrifice — the last was 
so efficacious. And no wonder, when even Ixtil himself thought 
that the maiden tribute might perchance have propitiated the 
demons. Fairhair was right, and Ixtil thought foolishness. 

“But hearken, Fairhair,” laying his hand on my shoulder, 
“ the Lord of Light swears by the head of his father, by the Spirit 
of the Stars, and by the sacred emblems imprinted on his brow, 
that, come what may — whether Napo’s daughter lives or dies — 
Suma shall not be sacrificed. Better let the mountain vomit fire 
and ashes, better let the lake be dried up and this fair island 
perish, than commit a crime which Ixtil could not survive and 
the Great Spirit would never forgive ! ” 


144 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


CHAPTER XXVII. 

THE PLOT THICKENS.. 

“ The plot thickens, Wildfell,” I observed to my friend a few 
days later, as we were smoking our evening cigars under the 
great colonnade. “Your desire to witness a great flare-up is 
likely to be gratified in more senses than one, I think. ” 

“You have news, then ? Something has happened ? ” 

“ Something has happened, and something is happening.” 

“I know what you mean — the volcano. Yes, those fire- 
demons seem to be firing up to-night as if their lives depended 
on it. The smoke is all aglow. I guess it is pretty hot down in 
the stoke-hole, there. But why so glum, old man? Is there 
anything else wrong — anything besides the volcano ? ” 

“ Napo’s daughter is dead.” 

“ Of the fever ? ” 

“ They say so ; but I know better. Ixtil sent me to look at 
the body. She died of the same complaint as Fernando.” 

“ Poor girl ! I am awfully sorry. What next ? ” 

“ I don’t know. But the outlook is black for us all, Wildfell, 
and God only knows what will be the upshot. Melchora tells 
me that the priests see in these things — the epidemic, the re- 
newal of the eruption, and, above all, the death of every noble 
maiden of marriageable age except Suma — proofs that the Phan- 
toms are losing the divine favor, that they have committed 
some grievous sin, and that, unless the cause of it be removed 
and atonement made, some awful calamity will happen. They 
are going to make a strong representation in this sense to Ixtil, 
and to-morrow he will be told what is expected of him.” 

“And suppose he tells those meddling priests to go to the 
deuce ; what then ? I would if I were in his place.” 

“You would do wrong. The priests are stronger than the 
Cacique just now, and he will have to swim with the stream, or 
risk being deposed and, perhaps, murdered.” 

‘ ‘ What will he do, then ? ” 

“ Temporize. At any rate, I should think so. More I cannot 
tell you. What he does depends on what the priests demand.” 

“ When will this representation you speak of be made ? ” 

“To-morrow morning.” 

“ When will you know the result ? ” 

“To-morrow afternoon, when I make my accustomed visit.” 

“I should like to know what passes. It may affect us, may 
it not?” 


THE PLOT THICKENS. 


145 


‘ ‘ Rather ! Melchora may have news in the morning, and in 
that case I shall get to know sooner.” 

“Do you know, doctor, I have a foreboding that something 
curious is going to happen.” 

“ So have I ; more curious than pleasant, I fear.” 

‘ ‘ And I don’t feel a bit like catching fish to-morrow, so I shall 
just loaf about here instead, and see what turns up.” 

After this we both turned in, but, so far as I was concerned, 
not to sleep. The foreboding which I shared with Wildfell kept 
me awake all night long. Ixtil’s weakness was our danger and 
our enemies’ opportunity. I had incurred Cochitemi’s enmity, 
and he might be trusted not to let slip the chance of feeding 
fat the grudge he bore me. What shape would his vengeance 
take ? 

And poor Suma ! Despite her father’s oath and his evident 
sincerity, I did not see how he could save her. If the eruption 
continued, and the sacrifice should not be made, the Phantoms 
would revolt to a man ; even his own guards would turn against 
him. And yet 

Poor Suma ! The thought of her being led like a lamb to the 
slaughter — the ghastly shroud — the fatal cloth — the weird pro- 
cession — the midnight sail — the flaming crater — fired my brain 
and rendered rest impossible. I got up, walked about until 
dawn, then went down to the lake and refreshed myself with a 
long swim. 

I returned to my quarters feeling very much better ; my 
spirits rose with the sun, and when Wildfell and I talked things 
over at breakfast, I took a decidedly more hopeful view of them 
than I had done the night before. 

“ Ixtil is a strong man,” I said ; “ and though recent events 
have rather impaired his authority and increased the influence 
of the priests, he is still the Lord of Light, the descendant of a 
long line of princes ; the Phantoms hold him and his family in 
high honor ; they are a gentle people, and it would take a good 
deal to make them rebel, or side with the priests against their 
prince. ” 

“ I guess you are about right, Carlyon ; only when people 
get real scared they often lose their heads ; and what with the 
fever and the volcano, it almost seems as if these Phantoms 
were getting real scared — just in the temper to believe all the 
nonsense the priests tell them, and do whatever they order, 
without much thinking whether it is right or wrong. Did you 
ever see a lot of people real scared ? ” 

“ No, I don’t think I did.” 

“ I remember once in our war Hallo ! ” 

“ What the ? ” 

10 


146 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


“ Look there ! What is up now ? ” 

What, indeed ? While Wildfell was talking, the mat, which 
served as a door, had been noiselessly drawn aside, and a dozen 
men of the Cacique’s guard, fully armed, and headed by Coxoh, 
were filing into the room. 

“Coxoh! What means this?” I asked, in utter surprise. 
‘ ‘ I hope you are not a bearer of evil tidings ? The Lord of 

Light has surely not ” and then I stopped. I could not 

bring myself to express the fear which had flashed for a moment 
into my mind — that Ixtil had been murdered. 

“ Coxoh, to his heartfelt regret, is the bearer of evil tidings. 
But duty is duty ; he must obey his master and tell the truth. 
The Lord of Light has decreed the arrest of Fairhair, Blueeyes, 
and Blackbeard, and ordered them to be removed to the vaulted 
chamber under the northern corridor.” 

“ Ixtil ordered me under arrest ! Impossible ; I don’t be- 
lieve it,” I exclaimed, starting to my feet. “ I refuse to go. 
Where is your authority ? ” 

Coxoh pointed to his men, signifying thereby that the guard 
never performed any duty not specially ordered by the Cacique. 
And Coxoh — it was not in the man’s nature to act in a matter 
of this sort without authority. Monstrous, incredible as it might 
seem, Ixtil really had turned against us. The priests had tri- 
umphed indeed. 

“ Well, what is the trouble now ? ” asked Wildfell. 

I told him, adding that even yet, with such incontrovertible 
evidence before my eyes as Coxoh and his men, I found it al- 
most impossible to believe that Ixtil had betrayed us. 

“ Not much doubt about that, I fear. You have been mis- 
taken in this man, Carlyon. He is a scallawag. Well, what 
will you do ? Shall we have a fight for it ? They are only little 
-chaps, these Phantom soldiers. I could wring a few of their 
necks with ease.” 

“ They have long spears, though.” 

“ Wrest a couple of them out of their hands before they know 
what they are doing. We could lick the lot, you and I. I am 
sure we could. At any rate, we can try, and if they finish us it 
will be better than being cooked in the crater.” 

“ No ! To do so would be throwing away a chance, and I 
think I see a gleam of hope. If Ixtil were really angry — if he 
meant mischief — he would not have sent Coxoh, a friend, to ar- 
rest us, and we should be dealt with in a much less ceremonious 
style. There is more in this than meets the eye. Let us go 
quietly to prison, my friend, and trust in Providence.” 

‘ ‘ As you please, old man. But I should like to spit a few of 
these small chaps on their own toasting forks. That’s a fact,” 


THE PLOT THICKENS. 


147 


I told Coxoh that we were ready to follow him, whereupon 
he led the way to the vaulted chamber, which was in a part of 
the palace I had never visited before. But though underground 
it was well-lighted, and by no means a bad place for a prison. 
It closed with a huge flag, turning on a pivot — the first door, if 
door it could be called, I had seen in Phantom-land — and Coxoh 
told us that a guard would be stationed outside, night and day ; 
that we should be regularly supplied with whatever food we 
wanted, that we might smoke at discretion, and otherwise 
make ourselves as comfortable as circumstances permitted. 

An hour later he returned with Gomez, who, at the time of 
our arrest, was outside. Though much surprised, the Spaniard 
was not depressed. He leaned his shoulder against the wall, 
which was composed of great panel-like slabs, crossed one leg 
over the other, played his banjo and sang (when he was not 
smoking) with as much seeming enjoyment as if he had been 
serenading a senorita in his native Sevilla. 

As for Wildfell and myself, we passed the day in pacing 
about (the vaulted chamber being fortunately both cool and 
spacious), sometimes moodily smoking, at others discussing our 
prospects and position (without being able to arrive at any sat- 
isfactory conclusion as to either), until night came, when, weary 
and worn out with fatigue and excitement, we turned into our 
hammocks, “ all standing,” as sailors say — without undressing. 

“ I wonder if things will look any better for us to-morrow ? ” 
said Wildfell, sadly. “ When I think of my mother and Grace 
it gives me a kind of shiver ! I was catching fish yesterday, 
and now I am caught myself.” 

“ Let the morrow take thought for itself, old man. We shall 
feel all the better for a long sleep. At any rate, I shall. I did 
not close my eyes last night, and now I can hardly keep them 
open.” 

Whether Wildfell answered I have no idea, for I went off at 
once into a sound sleep, and remembered nothing more until — • 
as it seemed — several hours later, when I was awakened by a 
light touch on my shoulder. 

“ Fairhair ! ” said a soft voice. 

“ Yes — what — Wildfell — is it time to get ” 

“ Hush, Fairhair ! Hot so loud ! ” and a soft hand was laid 
on my lips. 

Now thoroughly aroused, I looked round, and saw in the 
light of the struggling moonbeams a white phantom-like figure 
close by my hammock. 

“ Who are you ? ” I asked. “And what ” 

“ Knows not Fairhair his pupil ? ” 

“ Can it be Suma ? It is surely her voice,” 


148 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


“And herself. The Lord of Light wants to see Fairhair. 
Come ! ” 

I slipped out of my hammock at once, and followed the girl 
in a state of considerable wonderment ; the more especially 
as she took me in a direction quite opposite to the entrance. But 
when we got quite close to the wall I saw that one of the slabs, 
which I had thought quite solid, was ajar. Like the door, it 
swung on a pivot, and led into a passage, which we entered. 

After the slab had been pushed back we were in pitchy dark- 
ness. Suma gave me her hand. 

“Fairhair knows not the way,” she said. “Suma does. 
Come ! ” 

And we went swiftly through long narrow passages, built, as 
I conceived, within the walls, and up many steps, until we 
reached a hanging mat, under which gleamed a light. Pushing 
this aside, we found ourselves in the presence of Ixtil, the Lady 
of Light, and Zoe. 

“Can Fairhair forgive this seeming unkindness?” said the 
Cacique, coming forward and taking my hand. “ It is seeming 
only. Ixtil is as much Fairhair’s friend as ever.” 

‘ ‘ I am sure that whatever Ixtil has ordered must be for the 
best. I and my friends are willing to conform to his wishes in 
every respect, and we place ourselves entirely at his disposal.” 

“ Thanks, good Fairhair. Ixtil has sent for him that he may 
explain the things that have come to pass, and lay before him 
the plan of action which he has woven in his brain. 

“Listen!” (leading me away from the ladies). “There 
came this morning to the Hall of Audience all the priests of the 
four temples, and half the chiefs of the lordly families. Their 
bearing was very humble, and their protestations of loyalty 
very loud, which betokened, thought Ixtil, that they were going 
to make large demands — and he was right. The Land of Light 
had suffered much from the pest, they said, and the condition 
of the smoking mountain grows every day more threatening. 
The fire-demons ask for another victim, and, unless they are 
propitiated, great calamities will occur. Then their spokesman 
pointed out that these troubles have occurred only since the 
coming of the strangers, whom the Lord of Light has so much 
befriended ; and the priests, having consulted the stars (which 
always say what they desire) and studied the w T ords of Medio- 
taquel Cuixlahuaecan (which they always interpret to suit their 
own views), declare that the sole means whereby the favor of 
the Sun God can be regained and the wrath of the fire-demons 
assuaged, is to put the strangers to death and pay the maiden 
tribute in anticipation and at once, lest worse should befall. ” 

“ Lest worse should befall ! ” I exclaimed, 


THE PLOT THICKENS. 


149 


‘ ‘ There spoke the high-priest. Suma is the only eligible 
maiden left alive. If she were to die — or disappear — the rite 
could not be performed, and then the world would be at an 
end.” 

“ This is Cochitemi’s revenge.” 

“ And a very fine revenge ! If he could have the strangers 
put to death, and force Ixtil to sacrifice Suma to the fire-demons, 
his triumph would be complete. But it must not be, and, if 
Fairhair will give his help, this priestly plotter shall be utterly 
defeated and his schemes set at naught.” 

“ Has Fairhair not said that he is entirely at Ixtil’s disposal ? 
He has only to say the word and Fairhair will obey. What said 
the Lord of Light in answer to these demands ? ” 

“ If Ixtil could have done as he desired he would have put 
the high-priest into bonds, and dropped over his face the cloth of 
death. But a ruler is only one, his people are many. There 
are times when he has to yield, like the palm-tree which bends 
for a moment before the blast, and to meet force with guile. 
Ixtil knew that resistance might be fatal to his authority, pos- 
sibly to his life ; he knew, too, that it is wise to yield with a 
good grace. So, after listening patiently to the foolish words 
of the priests and their dupes, he complimented them on their 
wisdom and piety, admitted that he had made a mistake in 
harboring these strangers, and said that he should order them 
straightway into custody — to be dealt with as hereafter might 
be determined. As for the propitiatory rite, he observed that, 
however painful it might be to his fatherly feelings to immolate 
his own daughter, he would allow neither self-interest nor 
affection to stand in the way of duty. Better that one should 
die, however precious, than that all should suffer. 

“ Cochitemi asked when the sacrifice should take place ? 

“ Ixtil answered half a moon hence, unless in the meanwhile 
the fire-demons should cease from troubling. Then the high- 
priest observed that Fairhair was a great magician, and that if 
he were not closely watched he would either get away or work 
some terrible mischief ; and he recommended that he should be 
put to death at once. To which Ixtil replied that a thing of 
such grave import must be done with due deliberation, that the 
vaulted chamber would be watched by a detachment of the 
royal guard, and if Cochitemi liked, for further security, to 
station a few of his priests about the entrance he was at liberty 
to do so.” 

“ In saying this Ixtil was deceiving Cochitemi ?” I said. 

“ The Lord of Light was opposing force with guile. The high- 
priest thinks himself wise and strong. When he pits himself 
against his prince he is like a child who fancies himself a man.” 


150 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


“No doubt. But as yet, owing probably to the dullness of 
his wit, Fairhair does not see in what way the Lord of Light is 
going to get the better of the high-priest. He has promised to 
put the strangers to death and sacrifice Suma ” 

“ Ah, but he does not intend to perform. Listen, Fairhair ! 
He and his friends must go, and Suma must go with them.” 

“ Suma go with us ? Impossible ! ” 

If Ixtil had told me to rig up my balloon and fly with him 
and all his family to Saturn, I could not have been more sur- 
prised. Take that soft-skinned, delicately-nurtured young girl 
through the interminable forests and over the precipitous 
mountains which hemmed us in on every side, expose her to 
hardships that hardly the strongest could hope to survive — and 
in company with four men ! The Cacique was surely either 
gone mad, or I had mistaken his character and he was a fool. 

“Why, impossible? Fairhair is thinking of the difficulties 
of the journey, and that it is not seemly for a maiden to travel 
alone with four men not of her family.” 

“The Lord of Light has divined Fairhair’s thoughts.” 

“ The journey will neither be long nor hard. There is a short 
and easy way, of which none save Ixtil and Mocoroto, the chief 
huntsman, know the secret ; and when Suma leaves her father 
she will be Fairhair’s wife.” 

What next ? 

Mad, and no mistake ! Suma my wife. The idea was absurd, 
preposterous, impossible — yet, somehow or other, not altogether 
displeasing. Suma was attractive, intelligent, and comely, and, 
there was no denying it, I liked the girl. In other circum- 
stances perhaps 

“ Fairhair hesitates. Perhaps he is displeased with Ixtil ’s 
proposal, or desires not to become Suma’s husband. But he 
must know that in no other way can the maiden’s life be saved 
and the Lord of Light enabled to abolish the custom of human 
sacrifice. For in the absence of an acceptable victim the rite 
cannot be performed, and once omitted it will never be re- 
sumed.” 

“ Ixtil’s wish is Fairhair’s law. But Suma — is she willing to 
leave father and mother, country and friends, to dwell in a dis- 
tant land with a strange people ? ” 

“ Suma is an obedient daughter, and will do as she is bid. 
But her heart has gone out to her teacher, and she will make 
him a loving wife. Let Fairhair ask the maiden himself. The 
Great Spirit knows how dear is the girl to her father and 
mother, and how terrible will be their grief when she is gone. 
But better so than that she should be thrown to the fire-demons. 
And they know that Fairhair will cherish the child as the apple 


THE PLOT THICKENS. 


151 


of his eye ; and, in the time to come, her love for her husband 
will be greater than her sorrow for her kindred in the Land of 
Light.” 

Without waiting for a reply the Cacique went to the other 
end of the room, where his wife and daughter were sitting near 
a table, on which lay a map of the Land of Light and a part of 
the territory of the wild Indians. 

And then he told me the secret of the short way and ex- 
plained the route we should have to take. 

Westward of the volcano the lake empties itself into a broad 
swift stream, known as the Silent River, which, after running 
three days’ journey in a southerly direction, strikes the base of 
a line of lofty mountains, and then turns abruptly northward. 
These mountains are unbroken by a single pass, and too pre- 
cipitous to be climbed — no human foot has ever trod their 
rugged and inaccessible summits — but within an hour’s walk 
from the Silent River the barrier is pierced by an underground 
passage, a natural tunnel, whose southern exit is within a short 
distance of a Guatemalan village. 

The existence of this passage had, however, until it was re- 
vealed to me, been known only to two persons — the reigning 
Cacique and his chief huntsman. 

“And Ixtil must ask Fairhair and his comrades,” said the 
Cacique, ‘ ‘ to swear by the God they worship and all else they 
hold sacred, to keep secret the locality of the passage and the 
position of the Land of Light. Our safety and our happiness, 
the very existence of our ancient race, depend on our isolation. 
Once let neighboring peoples obtain access to the valley, either 
as friends or foes, and our fate will be that of our Toltec ances- 
tors and their Aztec conquerors. What says Fairhair ? Will 
he do this ? ” 

“ With all his heart. So also will Blueeyes, Blackbeard, and 
Pedro.” 

“Pedro is a Christianized Indian. He cannot be trusted. 
He must stay here. Never fear, he shall suffer no harm. Suma 
will now lead Fairhair back to the vaulted chamber. To-morrow 
night we shall meet again. Meanwhile, not a word of this to 
the others.” 

Again Suma placed her soft, velvety hand in mine, and we 
threaded together the dark passages which led to the vaulted 
chamber. As we were about to part I asked her if she knew 
what her father had proposed. 

“ Suma knows,” was the answer. 

‘ ‘ And is she willing to leave the Land of Light, and all she 
holds dear, and go with Fairhair, she knows not whither, never 
to return ? ” 


152 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


‘ ‘ What her father thinks best for her family and people that 
would Suma do, though it should break her heart. But she 
knows that Fairhair will be kind to Ixtil’s daughter, and it is 
better to be his wife than Cochitemi’s victim. ” 

“ Suma has a noble nature,” I said, “ and Fairhair will do 
his utmost to make her happy and render himself worthy of her 
love.” 

And then I kissed her hand and let her go, and, slipping 
quietly into the vaulted chamber, regained my hammock with- 
out wakening my companions. 


CHAPTER XXVIII. 

IXTIL’S SCHEME AND COCHITEMI’S FALL. 

At our next interview (the night after) Ixtil unfolded his 
scheme, and we came to an agreement as to how it should be 
carried out. 

Suma was to feign illness, on which her mother, protesting 
that I was the only doctor in whom she had confidence, would 
have me brought up to her room under escort, when the Cacique 
would inform me that if I succeeded in curing his daughter my 
life might possibly be spared ; and as her death was the very 
last thing the priests desired, this proceeding could not fail to 
meet with general approval. But instead of curing her I was 
to put her to sleep with corupa, diluted in such a way as to 
render it innocuous, and then declare her dead. On this 
(burials in Phantom-land taking place immediately after decease) 
the body would be straightway laid (as is usual in such cases) 
in a wicker-work coffin, preparatory to its being conveyed to the 
royal mausoleum within the precincts of the Temple of the Sun. 
But before this could be done Ixtil would secretly take Suma 
away and replace her with a lay figure, which would be duly 
laid in the ground instead of the supposed corpse. 

As soon after the funeral as possible, Suma and I were to be 
married — by the Cacique himself (who, as Chief of the State, 
had power to tie and untie the matrimonial knot), assisted by 
Melchora the scribe, whom Ixtil could trust as implicitly as 
Mocoroto, the huntsman. 

Immediately after the ceremony, Suma (attired as a boy), 
Wildfell, Gomez, and myself, were to go down to a little cove 
not far from the palace, where we should find Mocoroto waiting 
for us with his boat. If we had a fair wind we might easily 
reach the Silent River before sunrise. If not, we could all row, 
the boat being large. Mocoroto would show us the entrance to 


ixtil’s scheme and cochitemi’s fall. 


153 


the tunnel, and once on the other side of the mountains we 
should have no difficulty, the Indians of that part of the coun- 
try being tame, and ready to do anything for gold. 

“But you must not go away empty-handed,” said Ixtil. 
“ Here gold is a superfluity ; yonder it is a necessity. The Lady 
of Light and her daughters will fill the folds of your tunics 
with gold discs, and you may take with you as many more as 
you care to carry. And perhaps these green pebbles "may be of 
use. The wild men find them somewhere on the mountains.” 

The ‘ ‘ green pebbles ” were a heap of uncut emeralds. ‘ ‘ These 
are very precious, Ixtil. In Europe they are worth much more 
than their weight in gold.” 

“ Let them be Suma’s marriage-gift then. And they are not 
all. She shall have as many more.” 

“ Suma will be rich.” 

“Better so. She will not know want, and it would not be 
fitting for a prince’s daughter to be a portionless bride.” 

After some further conversation, I returned to my prison, ac- 
companied, as before, by Suma, and, as before, I got back to 
my hammock without attracting the attention of either Wildfell 
or Gomez. 

In the morning, however, I told them everything. At first 
Wildfell refused to believe me. He would have it that I had 
been dreaming, and remained obdurate in his skepticism until I 
showed him the secret entrance, and walked with him a little 
way up the passage into which it opened. 

“Well,” he exclaimed, convinced at last, “if this does not 
beat cock-fighting ! And you are really engaged to an Indian 
princess, a Phantom Pocahontas, with pockets full of emer- 
alds, and I am going home to Grace and my mother with as 
much gold as I can carry (I can carry a thundering lot, Carlyon). 
How beautifully it will reconcile them to my long absence. No 
reproaches, you bet. If I could only wire a full account of our 
adventures to the New York Herald , winding up with a glowing 
description of the wedding, the wild beauty of the bride and the 
dashing appearance of the bridegroom, it would be worth a small 
fortune. They would give dollars for it, my friend.” 

“Very likely. But whatever happens, Wildfell, don’t let 
anything of this get into the papers. And our adventures are 
not over yet. Much has to be done before we get away, and 
there is many a slip between the cup and the lip, you know.” 

“ That is true. All the same, we are bound to get away this 
time, and I feel sure we shall. Are we to have the honor 
— Gomez and I — of seeing you turned off ? ” 

“Certainly; and at the first British Consulate we come to 
we will have it done over again.” 


154 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


“ By way of making assurance doubly sure, I suppose ?” 

“ Exactly.” 

‘ * Right for you. When does it come off — marriage number 
one, I mean ? ” 

“ In four or five days.” 

‘ ‘ When does Miss Suma’s fatal illness begin ? ” 

“ This morning. I dare say it has begun already. I expect 
to be sent for before the day is over. ” 

In this expectation I was not disappointed. A few hours 
later the big flag swung round on its pivot, and Coxoh, followed 
by his guardsmen, entered the vaulted chamber. 

After respectfully saluting me, he said that the Lady Suma 
had been taken seriously ill, and the Lord of Light required my 
presence in the royal apartments. 

To this order I of course rendered due obedience, and, accom- 
panied by my escort, went forthwith to the part of the palace 
inhabited by Ixtil and his family. Suma was lying on a couch, 
apparently very ill — she acted the part of malade imaginaire 
to admiration — and her mother and sister were in great distress. 
After making the usual inquiries, and observing that the case, 
though grave, was by no means hopeless, I asked leave to go to 
my own room in order to prepare a potion. 

At this point, Ixtil, followed by the high-priest and two other 
personages, appeared on the scene. Without returning my greet- 
ing, he told me sternly that I had been accused of witchcraft, 
and merited death ; but that if I succeeded in curing the Lady 
Suma my life might possibly be spared. 

I answered quietly that I would do my best, and had little 
doubt that the Lady Suma would speedily recover. I moreover 
asked that if the potion I was about to prepare did not produce 
the desired effect, I might be sent for again as soon as possible. 

In the result I was sent for before sunset, for the medicine, as 
I meant it to do (though essentially harmless), had made Suma 
feel sickly, and look as if she were really very ill. 

I expressed great concern, and her mother and I watched by 
her bedside far into the night. Towards morning Suma to all 
appearance passed quietly away ; and so death-like did she seem 
that I had some difficulty in persuading the Lady of Light that 
her daughter still lived. But as I had prepared the corupa 
with great care, diluting it largely with alcohol, I felt sure that 
the unconsciousness would not last more than a few hours. (I 
need hardly say that I had informed nobody, save Ixtil, of the 
anaesthetic, as distinguished from the tonic, properties of the 
drug.) 

When I formally pronounced life to be extinct, in the pres- 
ence of the Lady of Light and her attendants, all broke out into 


IXTIL’ S SCHEME AND COCHITEMI’S FALL. 155 

loud lamentations, and Ixtil, hearing the outcry, appeared on 
the scene in a state of well-assumed sorrow and excitement ; 
and with many reproaches for my incompetence, and threats of 
vengeance for my failure, ordered me back to the vaulted cham- 
ber. 

A little later (as I afterwards heard) came Cochitemi, with 
several officers of state, to view the body. The high-priest, who 
was in a mighty rage at being robbed of his victim, said I had 
killed the maiden by my magical arts in revenge for my incar- 
ceration, and proposed that I should be cast alive to the fire- 
demons forthwith. 

Ixtil answered sternly that justice should be done, and then 
Suma was folded in a shroud, and in the sight of all placed in 
a basket-work coffin, where, I need hardly say, she could easily 
breathe. 

The burial was to take place at midnight, and during the day 
Ixtil and his wife secretly conveyed Suma to another room, and 
put in the coffin a dummy of about the same weight as the sup- 
posed corpse. 

The dummy was buried with much ceremony, and twenty- 
four hours afterwards Suma had fully recovered from the effects 
of the potion and the corupa. 

There was now nothing to prevent our departure ; and as 
Cochitemi and the priests w*ere clamoring for my immediate ex- 
ecution, Ixtil thought we had better leave at once, and fixed the 
marriage for the fourth evening after the funeral. 

In the meantime every preparation possible in the circum- 
stances was made. Most of our effects were taken down to the 
boat, and, at my suggestion, a tent, which would also serve as 
an awning, was put on board for my wife’s special use. It was 
impossible to keep all this absolutely secret, and I greatly feared 
that Cochitemi, who was as cunning as a serpent and as watch- 
ful as a cat, might get wind of what was going on, and then — 
as I said to Wildfell — “ there would be the deuce to pay.” 

However, all went on well. At the time appointed we left 
the vaulted chamber by the secret door, and gained the room 
to which Suma had previously conducted me, safely and unob- 
served. 

Everything was in readiness. Ixtil, the Lady of Light, Zoe, 
Melchora — all were there. Suma — albeit sorrowful, as well she 
might be — looked very charming in her male attire, and in the 
loving confidence with which she came forward and, placing 
her hands in mine, looked up into my eyes, there was something 
unspeakably pathetic. It touched me to the heart. 

After we had put on our gold-quilted tunics, and sworn to 
reveal neither the whereabouts of the Land of Light nor of the 


156 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


passage through the mountains, the marriage ceremony was 
performed, and the record of it, written in hieroglyphics by 
Melehora the scribe, handed to Suma. 

Then came the hardest part of all — the parting. The poor 
mother seemed as if she could not let her child go. Zoe wept 
bitterly. Ixtil, his eyes brimming with tears, took both my 
hands between his and, unable to command his voice, looked 
with his expressive eyes all he would have said, and bade me a 
mute farewell. 

For a few minutes we all kept silent. Then the Cacique, by 
a strong effort, mastered his emotion. 

“ This must cease, and they must depart,” he said ; “ time is 
going on, and there is danger in delay. ” 

He had hardly spoken, when, as if to confirm his words, the 
curtain in the doorway was drawn aside, and Cochitemi, fol- 
lowed by four other men, armed, and in civilian costume, ap- 
peared at the threshold. 

“Ah ! ” exclaimed the high-priest, half, as it seemed, in sur- 
prise, half in exultation. ‘ ‘ Fairhair, the wizard, and the Lady 
Suma — alive ! We have been tricked. But the Sun God and 
the fire-demons will punish this vile fraud.” 

And then, turning away, he made as if he would go. 

“Seize them! stop them! Fairhair, Blueeyes, stop them! 
If they get away we are lost,” shouted the Cacique. 

The next moment I had two of them by the throat. Gomez 
collared the third, and Wildfell caught Cochitemi by his robe 
and pulled him back into the room. 

My fellows, after a short struggle, in which they got a good 
deal the worst of it, surrendered at discretion. Gomez mastered 
the other with ease ; but the high-priest, who, though short, 
was very powerful, fought like a wild cat, and Wildfell had to 
give him a crushing blow with his fist before he would be 
quiet. 

“ What shall I do with him ? ” he asked of Ixtil. 

“ Throw him out of the casement ! ” 

Nothing loath, and despite his struggles, the American lifted 
Cochitemi from the floor, and, carrying him to the window, 
thrust aside the curtain, and threw him out headlong. 

“ There, Catchimalivo ! You will give no more trouble,” said 
Wildfell, grimly. “A hundred feet, if it’s a yard.” 

‘ ‘ He deserved his fate. Cochitemi brought these men here 
to murder the Lord of Light. Ixtil knows them ; they are all 
priests, and, as you see, armed. They expected to find me 
alone.” 

And then he made the trembling wretches confess that they 
had been put on to murder the Lord of Light by the high-priest, 


THE SILENT RIVER AND THE SECRET PASSAGE. 157 

who suspected that Ixtil was planning the escape of the stran- 
gers. 

“ How shall we dispose of them ? ” I asked. 

“ Bind them. They shall die the death, but not yet.” 

We bound them hand and foot with their own belts. 

‘ ‘ And now, ” said the Cacique, ‘ ‘ the sooner you are gone the 
better. It was well you were here. It is well this has hap- 
pened. Ixtil will now be master in his own house ; but it must 
not be known that Suma still lives. No more leave-taking. Go ! 
Take with you Ixtil’s blessing and his heartfelt thanks for 
saving his life and helping him to redeem his land from the 
curse of human sacrifice. May the Sun God and the Spirit of 
the Stars light you on your homeward way and to the end of the 
great journey of life.” 


CHAPTER XXIX. 

THE .SILENT RIVER AND THE SECRET PASSAGE. 

My tale is nearly told. 

At sunrise on the following morning we entered the Silent 
River. Suma, after bowing, in mute adoration, before the orb 
of day, looked with beaming eyes towards the Smoking Mountain, 
round whose rugged summit was wreathed a silvery cloud. 

“A sign of peace for the Land of Light!” she exclaimed. 
“ The fire-demons have ceased from troubling. Ixtil will point 
to yon sun-blessed cloud and tell his people that the tribute 
demanded by the demons was not a maiden’s life, but the death 
of a wicked priest, who personified the degrading superstition 
which my Fairhair’s devotion has helped to destroy.” 

“ Say rather my Suma’s self-sacrifice.” 

“ True,” she said, sadly ; “ it is a great sacrifice to give up 
father and mother, kinsfolk, and country. But,” brightly, 
“ more than all these is Fairhair’s love, and Suma is content.” 

On the third day after leaving the Phantom City we reached 
the mountain barrier, and were led by Mocoroto to the mouth of 
the underground passage. It was so hidden by vegetation that, 
without a guide, not the most minute directions would have 
enabled us to find it. Here we parted company with the hunts- 
man, and, lighting torches and shouldering our packs, plunged 
literally into the heart of the mountain. 

The geological formation was jurassic limestone, and the 
tunnel had evidently, in some remote age, been the channel of 
a river. One end being considerably higher than the other, the 


158 


THE PHANTOM CITY. 


interior was well drained and free from water ; while the dif- 
ference in elevation produced a continual current of air, which 
acted as a natural ventilator. 

After a tramp of three hours we came out in a thicket, 
through which we had to cut a way with our machetes ; but a 
short walk brought us to an open savanna, where we found a 
hamlet inhabited by a few half-breeds and Christianized Indi- 
ans. They were fortunately not very curious. We said that 
we had come from the east, and been compelled to leave our 
horses behind owing to the badness of the road. With this ex- 
planation they seemed quite satisfied, and we had no difficulty 
in obtaining food and shelter. 

On the following day we bought half a dozen horses and 
mules, engaged arrieros , and started for the coast. 

It was a long and rather arduous journey to San Jos5 de 
Guatemala ; but we got there at last, and sailed thence by 
steamer to Panama. At Colon we parted, much to our regret, 
with our fellow-travelers. Wildfell, of course, went to the 
States ; Gomez to Spain, where he hoped, with the help of the 
gold given him by Ixtil, to make his fortune as a showman. 

On the day of our arrival at Colon I cabled to Dominick’s 
bankers in London ; and, learning that my friend was still in 
Europe, I decided to proceed thither at once, and engaged 
berths by the first Royal Mail steamer bound for Southampton; 
wdiich we reached in due course, and were met by Dominick, 
fully restored to health, and eager for an account of my adven- 
tures. 

Where we are now it is not necessary to say. Yet the kind 
reader who has accompanied me thus far may be pleased to 
know’ that the idea of revisiting the Land of Light has more 
than once crossed my mind. But I have given hostages to for- 
tune ; the journey is long and not free from danger, and I am 
by no means sure that I should be able to find the underground 
passage. It is quite possible, moreover, that a Pharaoh may 
have arisen who knows not Joseph, and that I might not be 
allowed to return. For these reasons, and, above all, because 
my dear Suma, w T ho has ties which keep her at home, says I 
must wander no more, I have decided to leave the further ex- 
ploration of Central America to travelers who are as free from 
responsibilities as I was w r hen I undertook the discovery of the 
Phantom City. 


THE END, 


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